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<title>bioRxiv Channel: Northeastern University</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org</link>
<description>
This feed contains articles for bioRxiv Channel "Northeastern University"
</description>

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<prism:publicationName>bioRxiv</prism:publicationName>
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<title>bioRxiv</title>
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<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/001818v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Emergence of structural and dynamical properties of ecological mutualistic networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/001818v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutualistic networks are formed when the interactions between two classes of species are mutually beneficial. They are important examples of cooperation shaped by evolution. Mutualism between animals and plants plays a key role in the organization of ecological communities1-3. Such networks in ecology have generically evolved a nested architecture4,5 independent of species composition and latitude6,7 - specialists interact with proper subsets of the nodes with whom generalists interact1. Despite sustained efforts5,8,9,10 to explain observed network structure on the basis of community-level stability or persistence, such correlative studies have reached minimal consensus11,12,13. Here we demonstrate that nested interaction networks could emerge as a consequence of an optimization principle aimed at maximizing the species abundance in mutualistic communities. Using analytical and numerical approaches, we show that because of the mutualistic interactions, an increase in abundance of a given species results in a corresponding increase in the total number of individuals in the community, as also the nestedness of the interaction matrix. Indeed, the species abundances and the nestedness of the interaction matrix are correlated by an amount that depends on the strength of the mutualistic interactions. Nestedness and the observed spontaneous emergence of generalist and specialist species occur for several dynamical implementations of the variational principle under stationary conditions. Optimized networks, while remaining stable, tend to be less resilient than their counterparts with randomly assigned interactions. In particular, we analytically show that the abundance of the rarest species is directly linked to the resilience of the community. Our work provides a unifying framework for studying the emergent structural and dynamical properties of ecological mutualistic networks2,5,10,14.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Samir Suweis</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Filippo Simini</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jayanth Banavar</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amos Maritan</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2014-01-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/001818</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Emergence of structural and dynamical properties of ecological mutualistic networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2014-01-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/020206v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Post-transcriptional regulation across human tissues 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/020206v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation shape tissue-type-specific proteomes, but their relative contributions remain contested. Estimates of the factors determining protein levels in human tissues do not distinguish between (i) the factors determining the variability between the abundances of different proteins, i.e., mean-level-variability and, (ii) the factors determining the physiological variability of the same protein across different tissue types, i.e., across-tissues variability. We sought to estimate the contribution of transcript levels to these two orthogonal sources of variability, and found that scaled mRNA levels can account for most of the mean-level-variability but not necessarily for across-tissues variability. The reliable quantification of the latter estimate is limited by substantial measurement noise. However, protein-to-mRNA ratios exhibit substantial across-tissues variability that is functionally concerted and reproducible across different datasets, suggesting extensive post-transcriptional regulation. These results caution against estimating protein fold-changes from mRNA fold-changes between different cell-types, and highlight the contribution of post-transcriptional regulation to shaping tissue-type-specific proteomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Alexander Franks</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edoardo Airoldi</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nikolai Slavov</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2015-05-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/020206</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Post-transcriptional regulation across human tissues]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2015-05-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/044800v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Extent of EMT promotes invasive, contact-induced sliding on progressively narrower fiber-like tracks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/044800v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a complex process by which cells acquire invasive properties that enable escape from the primary tumor. Complete EMT, however, is not required for metastasis: circulating tumor cells exhibit hybrid epithelial-mesenchymal states, and genetic perturbations promoting partial EMT induce metastasis in vivo. An open question is whether and to what extent intermediate stages of EMT promote invasiveness. Here, we investigate this question, building on recent observation of a new invasive property. Migrating cancer cell lines and cells transduced with prometastatic genes slide around other cells on spatially-confined, fiber-like micropatterns. We show here that low-dosage/short-duration exposure to TGF{beta} induces partial EMT and enables sliding on narrower (26 {micro}m) micropatterns than untreated counterparts (41 {micro}m). High-dosage/long-duration exposure induces more complete EMT, including disrupted cell-cell contacts and reduced E-cadherin expression, and promotes sliding on the narrowest (15 {micro}m) micropatterns. These results demonstrate that EMT is a potent inducer of cell sliding, even under significant spatial constraints, and EMT-mediated invasive sliding is progressive, with partial EMT promoting intermediate sliding behavior. Our findings suggest a model in which fiber maturation and partial EMT work synergistically to promote invasiveness during cancer progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Daniel F Milano</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Senthil K Muthuswamy</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anand R Asthagiri</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-03-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/044800</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Extent of EMT promotes invasive, contact-induced sliding on progressively narrower fiber-like tracks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-03-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/051508v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
System-wide quantitative proteomics of the metabolic syndrome in mice: genotypic and dietary effects 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/051508v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Advances in mass spectrometry have made the quantitative measurement of proteins across multiple samples a reality, allowing for the study of complex biological systems such as the metabolic syndrome. Although deregulation of lipid metabolism and increased hepatic storage of triacylglycerides are known to play a part in the onset of the metabolic syndrome, its molecular basis and dependency on dietary and genotypic factors are poorly characterized. Here, we used a rich experimental design with two different mouse strains, dietary and metabolic perturbations to generate a compendium of quantitative proteome data, using three mass spectrometry strategies. The data recapitulates known properties of the metabolic system and indicate differential molecular adaptation of the two mouse strains to perturbations, contributing to a better understanding of the metabolic syndrome. We show that high-quality, high-throughput proteomic datasets provide an unbiased broad overview of complex systems upon perturbation.nnHIGHLIGHTSO_LIRich experimental design with two mouse strains, dietary and metabolic perturbationsnC_LIO_LIThree mass spectrometry proteomic data collection strategies in one data compendiumnC_LIO_LISWATH-MS data with systematic perturbation provide a broad unbiased view of the systemnC_LIO_LIThe data reveals differential adaptation of molecular systems in two mouse strainsnC_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Camille Terfve</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eduard Sabido</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yibo Wu</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emanuel Goncalves</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meena Choi</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stefania Vaga</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olga Vitek</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Julio Saez-Rodriguez</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruedi Aebersold</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-05-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/051508</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[System-wide quantitative proteomics of the metabolic syndrome in mice: genotypic and dietary effects]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-05-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/055046v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Not just methods: User expertise explains the variability of outcomes of genome-wide studies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/055046v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genome scan approaches promise to map genomic regions involved in adaptation of individuals to their environment. Outcomes of genome scans have been shown to depend on several factors including the underlying demography, the adaptive scenario, and the software or method used. We took advantage of a pedagogical experiment carried out during a summer school to explore the effect of an unexplored source of variability, which is the degree of user expertise.Participants were asked to analyze three simulated data challenges with methods presented during the summer school. In addition to submitting lists, participants evaluated a priori their level of expertise. We measured the quality of each genome scan analysis by computing a score that depends on false discovery rate and statistical power. In an easy and a difficult challenge, less advanced participants obtained similar scores compared to advanced ones, demonstrating that participants with little background in genome scan methods were able to learn how to use complex software after short introductory tutorials. However, in a challenge ofintermediate difficulty, advanced participants obtained better scores. To explain the difference, we introduce a probabilistic model that shows that a larger variation in scores is expected for SNPs of intermediate difficulty of detection. We conclude that practitioners should develop their statistical and computational expertise to follow the development of complex methods. To encourage training, we release the website of the summer school where users can submit lists of candidate loci, which will be scored and compared to the scores obtained by previous users.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kathleen E Lotterhos</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olivier Francois</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michael G.B. Blum</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-05-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/055046</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Not just methods: User expertise explains the variability of outcomes of genome-wide studies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-05-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/062158v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MINOTAUR: A platform for the analysis and visualization of multivariate results from genome scans with R Shiny 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/062158v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genome scans are widely used to identify 'outliers' in genomic data: loci with different patterns compared with the rest of the genome due to the action of selection or other non-adaptive forces of evolution. These genomic datasets are often high-dimensional, with complex correlation structures among variables, making it a challenge to identify outliers in a robust way. The Mahalanobis distance has been widely used for this purpose, but has the major limitation of assuming that data follow a simple parametric distribution. Here we develop three new metrics that can be used to identify outliers in multivariate space, while making no strong assumptions about the distribution of the data. These metrics are implemented in the R package MINOTAUR, which also includes an interactive web-based application for visualizing outliers in high-dimensional datasets. We illustrate how these metrics can be used to identify outliers from simulated genetic data, and discuss some of the limitations they may face in application.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Robert Verity</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caitlin Collins</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daren C. Card</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sara M Schaal</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liuyang Wang</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kathleen Lotterhos</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-07-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/062158</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MINOTAUR: A platform for the analysis and visualization of multivariate results from genome scans with R Shiny]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-07-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/066456v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Projected spread of Zika virus in the Americas 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/066456v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We use a data-driven global stochastic epidemic model to project past and future spread of the Zika virus (ZIKV) in the Americas. The model has high spatial and temporal resolution, and integrates real-world demographic, human mobility, socioeconomic, temperature, and vector density data. We estimate that the first introduction of ZIKV to Brazil likely occurred between August 2013 and April 2014 (90% credible interval). We provide simulated epidemic profiles of incident ZIKV infections for several countries in the Americas through February 2017. The ZIKV epidemic is characterized by slow growth and high spatial and seasonal heterogeneity, attributable to the dynamics of the mosquito vector and to the characteristics and mobility of the human populations. We project the expected timing and number of pregnancies infected with ZIKV during the first trimester, and provide estimates of microcephaly cases assuming different levels of risk as reported in empirical retrospective studies. Our approach represents an early modeling effort aimed at projecting the potential magnitude and timing of the ZIKV epidemic that might be refined as new and more accurate data from the region become available.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Qian Zhang</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaiyuan Sun</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matteo Chinazzi</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ana Pastore-Piontti</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Natalie E Dean</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diana P Rojas</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stefano Merler</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dina Mistry</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Piero Poletti</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luca Rossi</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Margaret Bray</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>M. Elizabeth Halloran</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ira M Longini</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alessandro Vespignani</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-07-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/066456</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Projected spread of Zika virus in the Americas]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-07-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/073189v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Novel Clustering Method for Patient Stratification 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/073189v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Patient stratification or disease subtyping is crucial for precision medicine and personalized treatment of complex diseases. The increasing availability of high-throughput molecular data provides a great opportunity for patient stratification. In particular, many clustering methods have been employed to tackle this problem in a purely data-driven manner. Yet, existing methods leveraging high-throughput molecular data often suffers from various limitations, e.g., noise, data heterogeneity, high dimensionality or poor interpretability. Here we introduced an Entropy-based Consensus Clustering (ECC) method that overcomes those limitations all together. Our ECC method employs an entropy-based utility function to fuse many basic partitions to a consensus one that agrees with the basic ones as much as possible. Maximizing the utility function in ECC has a much more meaningful interpretation than any other consensus clustering methods. Moreover, we exactly map the complex utility maximization problem to the classic K-means clustering problem with a modified distance function, which can then be efficiently solved with linear time and space complexity. Our ECC method can also naturally integrate multiple molecular data types measured from the same set of subjects, and easily handle missing values without any imputation. We applied ECC to both synthetic and real data, including 35 cancer gene expression benchmark datasets and 13 cancer types with four molecular data types from The Cancer Genome Atlas. We found that ECC shows superior performance against existing clustering methods. Our results clearly demonstrate the power of ECC in clinically relevant patient stratification.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hongfu Liu</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rui Zhao</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hongsheng Fang</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feixiong Cheng</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yun Fu</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang-Yu Liu</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-09-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/073189</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Novel Clustering Method for Patient Stratification]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-09-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/088898v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Visual crowding is a combination of an increase of positional uncertainty, source confusion, and featural averaging 
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</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/088898v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Although we perceive a richly detailed visual world, our ability to identify 1 individual objects is severely limited in clutter, particularly in peripheral vision. Models of such crowding have generally been driven by the phenomenological misidentifications of crowded targets: using stimuli that do not easily combine to form a unique symbol (e.g. letters or objects), observers typically confuse the source of objects and report either the target or a distractor, but when continuous features are used (e.g. orientated gratings or line positions) observers report a feature somewhere between the target and distractor. To reconcile these accounts, we develop a hybrid method of adjustment that allows detailed analysis of these multiple error categories. Observers reported the orientation of a target, under several distractor conditions, by adjusting an identical foveal target. We apply new modelling to quantify whether perceptual reports show evidence of positional uncertainty, source confusion, and featural averaging on a trial-by-trial basis. Our results show that observers make a large proportion of source-confusion errors. However, our study also reveals the distribution of perceptual reports that underlie performance in this crowding task more generally: aggregate errors cannot be neatly labelled because they are heterogeneous and their structure depends on target-distractor distance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Harrison, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2016-11-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/088898</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Visual crowding is a combination of an increase of positional uncertainty, source confusion, and featural averaging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2016-11-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/098038v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Age-dependence and aging-dependence: The case of neuronal loss and lifespan in a C. elegans model of Parkinson’s disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/098038v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
It is often assumed, but not established, that the major neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinsons disease, are not just age-dependent (their incidence changes with time) but actually aging-dependent (their incidence is coupled to the process that determines lifespan). To determine a dependence on the aging process requires the joint probability distribution of disease onset and lifespan. For human Parkinsons disease, such a joint distribution is not available because the disease cuts lifespan short. To acquire a joint distribution, we resorted to an established C. elegans model of Parkinsons disease in which the loss of dopaminergic neurons is not fatal. We find that lifespan is not correlated with the loss of neurons and that a lifespan-extending intervention into insulin/IGF1 signaling accelerates neuronal loss, while leaving death and neuronal loss times uncorrelated. This suggests that distinct and compartmentalized instances of the same genetically encoded insulin/IGF1 signaling machinery act independently to control neurodegeneration and lifespan in C. elegans. Although the human context might well be different, our study calls attention to maintaining a rigorous distinction between age-dependence and aging-dependence.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Apfeld, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fontana, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-01-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/098038</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Age-dependence and aging-dependence: The case of neuronal loss and lifespan in a C. elegans model of Parkinson’s disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-01-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/098970v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evidence for a Large-Scale Brain System Supporting Allostasis and Interoception in Humans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/098970v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AbstractLarge-scale intrinsic brain systems have been identified for exteroceptive senses (e.g., sight, hearing, touch). We introduce an analogous system for representing sensations from within the body, called interoception, and demonstrate its relation to regulating peripheral systems in the body, called allostasis. Employing the recently introduced Embodied Predictive Interoception Coding (EPIC) model, we used tract-tracing studies of macaque monkeys, followed by two intrinsic functional magnetic resonance imaging samples (N = 280 and N = 270) to evaluate the existence of an intrinsic allostatic/interoceptive system in the human brain. Another sample (N = 41) allowed us to evaluate the convergent validity of the hypothesized allostatic/interoceptive system by showing that individuals with stronger connectivity between system hubs performed better on an implicit index of interoceptive ability related to autonomic fluctuations. Implications include novel insights for the brains functional architecture, dissolving the artificial boundary between mind and body, and unifying mental and physical illness.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kleckner, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Touroutoglou, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chanes, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xia, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simmons, W. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quigley, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dickerson, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrett, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-01-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/098970</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evidence for a Large-Scale Brain System Supporting Allostasis and Interoception in Humans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-01-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/102368v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
From affect to control: Functional specialization of the insula in motivation and regulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/102368v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The insula plays a key role in a wide range of brain processes, from viscerosensation and pain to motivation, emotion, and cognitive control. While human neuroimaging studies in all these domains report activations in the insula, little systematic attention is paid to anatomical subdivisions that may provide the basis for functional sub-regions. We conducted a meta-analysis of insular tasks across studies in four domains: emotion, pain, attention switching, and working memory. Using a priori subdivision of the insula based on anatomical studies, we provide evidence that different sub-regions are preferentially activated in different tasks. We suggest that the ventral anterior insula is most important for core affect, a term that describes broadly-tuned motivational states (e.g., excitement) with associated subjective feelings. The dorsal anterior insula, by contrast, may be critical for developing and updating motivational states with specific associated actions (i.e., goals). This region is activated by cognitive control tasks, pain, and some tasks that elicit affective processing. The posterior insula, including SII and portions of parietal operculum, is distinctly activated by pain, providing a double dissociation between pain and tasks that elicit emotions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wager, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrett, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-01-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/102368</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[From affect to control: Functional specialization of the insula in motivation and regulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-01-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/102681v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mass-spectrometry of single mammalian cells quantifies proteome heterogeneity during cell differentiation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/102681v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cellular heterogeneity is important to biological processes, including cancer and development. However, proteome heterogeneity is largely unexplored because of the limitations of existing methods for quantifying protein levels in single cells. To alleviate these limitations, we developed Single Cell ProtEomics by Mass Spectrometry (SCoPE-MS), and validated its ability to identify distinct human cancer cell types based on their proteomes. We used SCoPE-MS to quantify over a thousand proteins in differentiating mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. The single-cell proteomes enabled us to deconstruct cell populations and infer protein abundance relationships. Comparison between single-cell proteomes and transcriptomes indicated coordinated mRNA and protein covariation. Yet many genes exhibited functionally concerted and distinct regulatory patterns at the mRNA and the protein levels, suggesting that post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms contribute to proteome remodeling during lineage specification, especially for developmental genes. SCoPE-MS is broadly applicable to measuring proteome configurations of single cells and linking them to functional phenotypes, such as cell type and differentiation potentials.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Budnik, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levy, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-01-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/102681</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mass-spectrometry of single mammalian cells quantifies proteome heterogeneity during cell differentiation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-01-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/119552v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Alternative REST Splicing Underappreciated 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/119552v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
As a major orchestrator of the cellular epigenome, the repressor element-1 silencing transcription factor (REST) can either repress or activate thousands of genes depending on cellular context, suggesting a highly context-dependent REST function tuned by environmental cues. While REST shows cell-type non-selective active transcription1, an N-terminal REST4 isoform caused by alternative splicing - inclusion of an extra exon (N3c) which introduces a premature stop codon - has been implicated in neurogenesis and tumorigenesis2-5. Recently, in line with established epigenetic regulation of pre-mRNA splicing6,7, we demonstrated that REST undergoes extensive, context-dependent alternative splicing which results in the formation of a large number of mRNA variants predictive of multiple protein isoforms8. Supported by that immunoblotting/-staining with different anti-REST antibodies yield inconsistent results, alternative splicing allows production of various structurally and functionally different REST protein isoforms in response to shifting physiological requirements, providing a reasonable explanation for the diverse, highly context-dependent REST function. However, REST isoforms might be differentially assayed or manipulated, leading to data misinterpretation and controversial findings. For example, in contrast to the proposed neurotoxicity of elevated nuclear REST in ischemia9 and Huntingtons disease10,11, Lu et al. recently reported decreased nuclear REST in Alzheimers disease and neuroprotection of REST in ageing brain12. Unfortunately, alternative REST splicing was largely neglected by Lu et al., making it necessary for a reevaluation of their findings.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, G.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-03-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/119552</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Alternative REST Splicing Underappreciated]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-03-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/120329v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A personalized, multi-omics approach identifies genes involved in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/120329v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Identifying genes underlying complex diseases remains a major challenge. Biomarkers are typically identified by comparing average levels of gene expression in populations of healthy and diseased individuals. However, genetic diversities may undermine the effort to uncover genes with significant but individual contribution to the spectrum of disease phenotypes within a population. Here we leverage the Hybrid Mouse Diversity Panel (HMDP), a model system of 100+ genetically diverse strains of mice exhibiting different complex disease traits, to develop a personalized differential gene expression analysis that is able to identify disease-associated genes missed by traditional population-wide methods. The population-level and personalized approaches are compared for isoproterenol(ISO)-induced cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure using pre- and post-ISO gene expression and phenotypic data. The personalized approach identifies 36 Fold-Change (FC) genes predictive of the severity of cardiac hypertrophy, and enriched in genes previously associated with cardiac diseases in human. Strikingly, these genes are either up- or down-regulated at the individual strain level, and are therefore missed when averaging at the population level. Using insights from the gene regulatory network and protein-protein interactome, we identify Hes1 as a strong candidate FC gene. We validate its role by showing that even a mild knockdown of 20-40% of Hes1 can induce a dramatic reduction of hypertrophy by 80-90% in rat neonatal cardiac cells. These findings emphasize the importance of a personalized approach to identify causal genes underlying complex diseases as well as to develop personalized therapies.nnSignificanceA traditional approach to investigate the genetic basis of complex diseases is to look for genes with a global change in expression between diseased and healthy individuals. Here, we investigate individual changes of gene expression by inducing heart failure in 100 strains of genetically distinct mice. We find that genes associated to the severity of the disease are either up- or down-regulated across individuals and are therefore missed by a traditional population level approach. However, they are enriched in human cardiac disease genes and form a coregulated module strongly interacting with a cardiac hypertrophic signaling network in the human interactome. Our analysis demonstrates that individualized approaches are crucial to reveal all genes involved in the development of complex diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Santolini, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romay, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yukhtman, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rau, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ren, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saucerman, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lusis, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-03-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/120329</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A personalized, multi-omics approach identifies genes involved in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-03-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/123497v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pervasive Discordance Between mRNA And Protein Expression During Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/123497v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
During in vitro differentiation, pluripotent stem cells undergo extensive remodeling of their gene expression profile. While studied extensively at the transcriptome level, much less is known about protein dynamics. Here, we measured mRNA and protein levels of 7459 genes during differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). This comprehensive data set revealed pervasive discordance between mRNA and protein. The high temporal resolution of the data made it possible to determine protein turnover rates genome-wide by fitting a kinetic model. This model further enabled us to systematically identify dynamic post-transcriptional regulation. Moreover, we linked different modes of regulation to the function of specific gene sets. Finally, we showed that the kinetic model can be applied to singlecell transcriptomics data to predict protein levels in differentiated cell types. In conclusion, our comprehensive data set, easily accessible through a web application, is a valuable resource for the discovery of post-transcriptional regulation in ESC differentiation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>van den Berg, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Budnik, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Semrau, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-04-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/123497</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pervasive Discordance Between mRNA And Protein Expression During Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-04-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/129908v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Unexpected sequences and structures of mtDNA required for efficient transcription from the first heavy-strand promoter 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/129908v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Human mtDNA contains three promoters, suggesting a need for differential expression of the mitochondrial genome. Studies of mitochondrial transcription have used a reductionist approach, perhaps masking differential regulation. Here we evaluate transcription from light-strand (LSP) and heavy-strand (HSP1) promoters using templates that mimic their natural context. These studies reveal sequences upstream, hypervariable in the human population (HVR3), and downstream of the HSP1 transcription start site required for maximal yield. The carboxy-terminal tail of TFAM is essential for activation of HSP1 but not LSP. Images of the template obtained by atomic force microscopy show that TFAM creates loops in a discrete region, the formation of which correlates with activation of HSP1; looping is lost in tail-deleted TFAM. Identification of HVR3 as a transcriptional regulatory element may contribute to between-individual variability in mitochondrial gene expression. The unique requirement of HSP1 for the TFAM tail may enable its regulation by post-translational modifications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Uchida, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murugesapillai, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lodeiro, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prabhakar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arnold, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maher, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-04-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/129908</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Unexpected sequences and structures of mtDNA required for efficient transcription from the first heavy-strand promoter]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-04-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/134502v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mitochondrial pseudogenes suggest repeated inter-species hybridization in hominid evolution. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/134502v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The hypothesis that the evolution of humans involved hybridization between diverged species has been actively debated in recent years. We present novel evidence in support of this hypothesis: the analysis of nuclear pseudogenes of mtDNA ("NUMTs"). NUMTs are considered "mtDNA fossils", as they preserve sequences of ancient mtDNA and thus carry unique information about ancestral populations. Our comparison of a NUMT sequence shared by humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas with their mtDNAs implies that, around the time of divergence between humans and chimpanzees, our evolutionary history involved the interbreeding of individuals whose mtDNA had diverged as much as ~4.5 Myr prior. This large divergence suggests a distant interspecies hybridization. Additionally, analysis of two other NUMTs suggests that such events occurred repeatedly. Our findings suggest a complex pattern of speciation in primate human ancestors and provide a potential explanation for the mosaic nature of fossil morphology found at the emergence of the hominin lineage.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunbin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peshkin, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Annis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kraytsberg, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markuzon, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ackermann, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-05-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/134502</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mitochondrial pseudogenes suggest repeated inter-species hybridization in hominid evolution.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-05-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/138776v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Role Of Chymotrypsin-Like Elastase 1 In Lung Physiology And in α1-Antitrypsin Deficiency 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/138776v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
1-antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency-related emphysema is the fourth leading indication for lung transplantation. We previously demonstrated that AAT covalently neutralizes chymotrypsin-like elastase 1 (Cela1) in vitro, that Cela1 is expressed during the alveolar stage of lung development in association with regions of lung elastin remodeling, and that lung stretch increases Cela1 expression and binding to lung elastin. Here we show that Cela1 is exclusively responsible for stretch-inducible lung elastase activity, reduces postnatal lung elastance, and is required for emphysema in an antisense oligo model of AAT deficiency. Cela1 mRNA is present in the human lung, and in the placental mammal lineage, Cela1 is more conserved than Cela2 or Cela3 with unique promoter and protein elements indicating a unique role for Cela1 in this lineage. These data demonstrate an adaptive role for Cela1 in placental mammal lung biology with physiologic relevance to AAT-deficient lung disease in humans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Joshi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heinz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monia, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmelzer, C. E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Batie, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parameswaran, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varisco, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-05-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/138776</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Role Of Chymotrypsin-Like Elastase 1 In Lung Physiology And in α1-Antitrypsin Deficiency]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-05-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/146209v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Network integration of multi-tumour omics data suggests novel targeting strategies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/146209v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We characterize different tumour types in the search for multi-tumour drug targets, in particular aiming for drug repurposing or novel drug combinations. Starting from 11 tumour types from The Cancer Genome Atlas, we obtain three clusters based on transcriptomic correlation profiles. A network-based analysis, integrating gene expression profiles and protein interactions of cancer-related genes, allowed us to define three cluster-specific signatures, with genes belonging to NF-B signaling, chromosomal instability, ubiquitin-proteasome system, DNA metabolism, and apoptosis biological processes. These signatures have been characterized by different approaches based on mutational, pharmacological and clinical evidences, demonstrating the validity of our selection. Moreover, we defined new pharmacological strategies validated by in vitro experiments that showed inhibition of cell growth in two tumour cell lines, with significant synergistic effect. Our study thus provides a list of genes and pathways with the potential to be used, singularly or in combination, for the design of novel treatment strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Faria do Valle, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menichetti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simonetti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bruno, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zironi, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fernandes Durso, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mombach, J. C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martinelli, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castellani, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Remondini, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-06-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/146209</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Network integration of multi-tumour omics data suggests novel targeting strategies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-06-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/154823v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Tolloid cleavage activates latent GDF8 by priming the pro-complex for dissociation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/154823v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Growth differentiation factor 8 (GDF8)/Myostatin is a latent TGF{-}{beta} family member that potently inhibits skeletal muscle growth. Here, we compared the conformation and dynamics of precursor, latent, and Tolloid{-}cleaved GDF8 pro{-}complexes to understand structural mechanisms underlying latency and activation of GDF8. Negative stain electron microscopy (EM) of precursor and latent pro{-}complexes reveals a V{-}shaped conformation that is unaltered by furin cleavage and sharply contrasts with the ring{-}like, cross{-}armed conformation of latent TGF{-}{beta}1. Surprisingly, Tolloid{-}cleaved GDF8 does not immediately dissociate, but in EM exhibits structural heterogeneity consistent with partial dissociation. Hydrogen-deuterium exchange was not affected by furin cleavage. In contrast, Tolloid cleavage, in the absence of prodomain-growth factor dissociation, increased exchange in regions that correspond in pro-TGF-{beta}1 to the 1-helix, latency lasso, and {beta}1 strand in the prodomain and to the {beta}6-7 strands in the growth factor. Thus, these regions are important in maintaining GDF8 latency. Our results show that Tolloid cleavage activates latent GDF8 by destabilizing specific prodomain-growth factor interfaces and primes the growth factor for release from the prodomain.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Le, V. Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iacob, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tian, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McConaughy, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Su, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pirruccello-Straub, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Springer, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-06-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/154823</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Tolloid cleavage activates latent GDF8 by priming the pro-complex for dissociation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-06-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/162362v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Human activities influence the direction and magnitude of local biodiversity change over time 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/162362v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In recent decades, environmental drivers of community change have been associated with changes in biodiversity from local to global scales. Here we evaluate the role of anthropogenic drivers in marine ecosystems as drivers of change in local species richness with a meta-analysis of a novel dataset of temporal change in species richness. We paired biodiversity data from 144 sites with large-scale drivers derived from geospatial databases: human cumulative impact scores, sea surface temperature change, nutrient loading, and invasion potential. Three specific drivers (nutrient inputs, rate of linear temperature change, and non-native species invasion potential) explained patterns in local marine species richness change. We show that these drivers have opposing effects on biodiversity trends. In some cases, variability in drivers can create contrasting directions of change yielding observations of no net change when localities are pooled in an attempt to find a global average. Further, long-term studies reveal different effects of drivers that are not observed in short-term studies. These findings begin to explain high variability observed in species diversity trends at local scales. Formally attributing local species diversity change to human drivers is essential to understanding global patterns of local species diversity change and their consequences.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dunic, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elahi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hensel, M. J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kearns, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Connor, M. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Acuna, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Honig, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byrnes, J. E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-07-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/162362</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Human activities influence the direction and magnitude of local biodiversity change over time]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-07-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/162867v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sensory discrimination by isolated feeding tentacles in Sanderia malayensis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/162867v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite having only a diffuse neural network, tentacles of scyphomedusae exhibit a variety of distinct behavioral acts. One such behavior in tentacles is the capture and subsequent transfer of prey to the mouth. Interaction with prey consists of a variety of distinct stimuli--mechanical contact with the organism, chemical stimulation from the prey, and once captured by the tentacle, the weight of the food particles stretching the tentacle. By isolating and observing these individual stimuli in intact and isolated tentacles of the scyphomedusa, Sanderia malayensis, two separate reflexes have been distinguished. The tentacle feeding response observations suggest that the tentacle has two sensing networks, a bi-directional network for withdrawal and a proximally directed network for feeding.nnSummary StatementTwo separate reflexes have been distinguished isolated tentacles of the scyphomedusa, Sanderia malayensis, a bi-directional network for withdrawal and a proximally directed network for feeding.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mori, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sullivan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayers, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-07-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/162867</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sensory discrimination by isolated feeding tentacles in Sanderia malayensis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-07-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/168047v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Determining whether a class of random graphs is consistent with an observed contact network 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/168047v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We demonstrate a general method to analyze the sensitivity of attack rate in a network model of infectious disease epidemiology to the structure of the network. We use Moore and Shannons "network reliability" statistic to measure the epidemic potential of a network. A number of networks are generated using exponential random graph models based on the properties of the contact network structure of one of the Add Health surveys. The expected number of infections on the original Add Health network is significantly different from that on any of the models derived from it. Because individual-level transmissibility and network structure are not separately identifiable parameters given population-level attack rate data it is possible to re-calibrate the transmissibility to fix this difference. However, the temporal behavior of the outbreak remains significantly different. Hence any estimates of the effectiveness of time dependent interventions on one network are unlikely to generalize to the other. Moreover, we show that in one case even a small perturbation to the network spoils the re-calibration. Unfortunately, the set of sufficient statistics for specifying a contact network model is not yet known. Until it is, estimates of the outcome of a dynamical process on a particular network obtained from simulations on a different network are not reliable.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nath, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ren, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khorramzadeh, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eubank, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-07-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/168047</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Determining whether a class of random graphs is consistent with an observed contact network]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-07-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/168765v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Quantifying homologous proteins and proteoforms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/168765v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many proteoforms - arising from alternative splicing, post-translational modifications (PTMs), or paralogous genes - have distinct biological functions, such as histone PTM proteoforms. However, their quantification by existing bottom-up mass-spectrometry (MS) methods is undermined by peptide-specific biases. To avoid these biases, we developed and implemented a first-principles model (HIquant) for quantifying proteoform stoichiometries. We characterized when MS data allow inferring proteoform stoichiometries by HIquant, derived an algorithm for optimal inference, and demonstrated experimentally high accuracy in quantifying fractional PTM occupancy without using external standards, even in the challenging case of the histone modification code. A HIquant server is implemented at: https://web.northeastern.edu/slavov/2014_HIquant/
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Malioutov, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaffe, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Airoldi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carr, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Budnik, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-07-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/168765</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Quantifying homologous proteins and proteoforms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-07-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/187591v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Preliminary results of models to predict areas in the Americas with increased likelihood of Zika virus transmission in 2017. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/187591v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Numerous Zika virus vaccines are being developed. However, identifying sites to evaluate the efficacy of a Zika virus vaccine is challenging due to the general decrease in Zika virus activity. We compare results from three different modeling approaches to estimate areas that may have increased relative risk of Zika virus transmission during 2017. The analysis focused on eight priority countries (i.e., Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, and Peru). The models projected low incidence rates during 2017 for all locations in the priority countries but identified several subnational areas that may have increased relative risk of Zika virus transmission in 2017. Given the projected low incidence of disease, the total number of participants, number of study sites, or duration of study follow-up may need to be increased to meet the efficacy study endpoints.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Asher, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barker, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cummings, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chinazzi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daniel-Wayman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fischer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferguson, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Follman, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halloran, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johansson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kugeler, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kwan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lessler, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Longini, I. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merler, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pastore y Piontti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perkins, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prevots, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reiner, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rossi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez-Barraquer, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siraj, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vespignani, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/187591</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Preliminary results of models to predict areas in the Americas with increased likelihood of Zika virus transmission in 2017.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/190413v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Symbiodinium functional diversity and clade specificity under global change stressors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/190413v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Coral bleaching episodes are increasing in frequency, demanding examination of the physiological and molecular responses of corals and their Symbiodinium to climate change. Here we quantify bleaching and Symbiodinium photosynthetic performance of Siderastrea siderea from two reef zones after long-term exposure to thermal and CO2-acidification stress. Molecular response of in hospite Symbiodinium to these stressors was interrogated with RNAseq. Elevated temperatures reduced photosynthetic efficiency, which was highly correlated with bleaching status. However, photosynthetic efficiencies of forereef symbionts were more negatively affected by thermal stress than nearshore symbionts, indicating greater thermal tolerance in nearshore corals. At control temperatures, CO2-acidification had little effect on symbiont physiology, although forereef symbionts exhibited greater photosynthetic efficiencies than nearshore symbionts. Transcriptome profiling revealed that S. siderea were dominated by clade C Symbiodinium, except under thermal stress, which caused shifts to thermotolerant clade D. Comparative transcriptomics of conserved genes across symbiotic partners revealed few differentially expressed Symbiodinium genes when compared to corals. Instead of responding to stress, clade C transcriptomes varied by reef zone, with forereef Symbiodinium exhibiting enrichment of genes associated with photosynthesis. Our findings suggest that functional variation in photosynthetic architecture exists between forereef and nearshore Symbiodinium populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Davies, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ries, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marchetti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Granzotti, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castillo, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/190413</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Symbiodinium functional diversity and clade specificity under global change stressors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/198051v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Simulations for Designing and Interpreting Intervention Trials in Infectious Diseases 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/198051v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Here we urge the adoption of a new paradigm for the design and interpretation of intervention trials in infectious diseases, particularly in emerging infectious disease, that more accurately reflects the dynamics of the transmission process. Interventions in infectious diseases can have indirect effects on those not receiving the intervention as well as direct effects on those receiving the intervention. Combinations of interventions can have complex interactions at the population level. These often cannot be adequately addressed with standard study designs and analytic methods. Simulations can help to accurately represent transmission dynamics in an increasingly complex world which is critical for proper trial design and interpretation. Some ethical aspects of a trial can also be quantified using simulations. After a trial has been conducted, simulations can be used to explore possible explanations for the observed effects. A great deal is to be gained through a multidisciplinary approach that builds collaborations among experts in infectious disease dynamics, epidemiology, statistical science, economics, simulation methods and the conduct of clinical trials.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Halloran, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auranen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baird, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basta, N. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bellan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brookmeyer, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooper, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeGruttola, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lessler, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lofgren, E. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Longini, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onnela, J.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozler, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seage, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vespignani, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vynnycky, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lipsitch, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-10-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/198051</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Simulations for Designing and Interpreting Intervention Trials in Infectious Diseases]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-10-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/201723v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Asymmetric migration decreases stability but increases resilience in a heterogeneous metacommunity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/201723v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many natural communities are spatially distributed, forming a network of subcommunities linked by migration. Migration patterns are often asymmetric and heterogeneous, with important consequences on the ecology and evolution of the species. Here we investigated experimentally how asymmetric migration and heterogeneous structure affect a simple metacommunity of budding yeast, formed by one strain that produces a public good and a non-producer strain that benefits from it. We find that asymmetric migration increases the fraction of producers in all subpopulations of the metacommunity. Furthermore, asymmetric migration decreases the metacommunitys tolerance to challenging environments, but increases its resilience to transient perturbations. This apparent paradox occurs because tolerance to a constant challenge depends on the weakest subpopulations of the network, while resilience to a transient perturbation depends on the strongest ones.nnOne Sentence SummaryAsymmetric migration decreases the stability of experimental yeast metacommunities but increases their resilience to transient shocks.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Limdi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perez-Escudero, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gore, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-10-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/201723</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Asymmetric migration decreases stability but increases resilience in a heterogeneous metacommunity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-10-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.12.874586v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Natural hybridization reveals incompatible alleles that cause melanoma in swordtail fish 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.12.874586v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The establishment of reproductive barriers between populations is the key process that fuels the evolution of new species. A genetic framework for this process was proposed over 80 years ago, which posits "incompatible" interactions between genes that result in reduced survival or reproduction in hybrids. Despite this foundational work, progress has been slow in identifying individual genes that underlie hybrid incompatibilities, with only a handful known to date. Here, we use a combination of approaches to precisely map the genes that drive the development of a melanoma incompatibility in swordtail fish hybrids. We find that one of the genes involved in this incompatibility also causes melanoma in hybrids between distantly related species. Moreover, we show that this melanoma reduces survival in the wild, likely due to progressive degradation of the fin. Together, this work represents only the second case where the genes underlying a vertebrate hybrid incompatibility have been identified and provides the first glimpse into the action of these genes in natural hybrid populations.

One sentence summaryUsing a combination of mapping approaches, we identify interacting genes that lead to melanoma in hybrids and characterize their effects in natural hybrid populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Powell, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keegan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reilly, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Du, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diaz-Loyo, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banerjee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blakkan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reich, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andolfatto, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenthal, G. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schartl, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schumer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.12.874586</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Natural hybridization reveals incompatible alleles that cause melanoma in swordtail fish]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.12.874891v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Delicate balances in cancer chemotherapy: modeling immune recruitment and emergence of systemic drug resistance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.12.874891v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Metronomic chemotherapy can drastically enhance immunogenic tumor cell death. However, the responsible mechanisms are still incompletely understood. Here, we develop a mathematical model to elucidate the underlying complex interactions between tumor growth, immune system activation, and therapy-mediated immunogenic cell death. Our model is conceptually simple, yet it provides a surprisingly excellent fit to empirical data obtained from a GL261 mouse glioma model treated with cyclophosphamide on a metronomic schedule. The model includes terms representing immune recruitment as well as the emergence of drug resistance during prolonged metronomic treatments. Strikingly, a fixed set of parameters, not adjusted for individuals nor for drug schedule, excellently recapitulates experimental data across various drug regimens, including treatments administered at intervals ranging from 6 to 12 days. Additionally, the model predicts peak immune activation times, rediscovering experimental data that had not been used in parameter fitting or in model construction. The validated model was then used to make predictions about expected tumor-immune dynamics for novel drug administration schedules. Notably, the validated model suggests that immunostimulatory and immunosuppressive intermediates are responsible for the observed phenomena of resistance and immune cell recruitment, and thus for variation of responses with respect to different schedules of drug administration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tran, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al-Radhawi, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kareva, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waxman, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.12.874891</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Delicate balances in cancer chemotherapy: modeling immune recruitment and emergence of systemic drug resistance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.15.876961v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Global broadcasting of local fractal fluctuations in a bodywide distributed system supports perception via effortful touch 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.15.876961v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A long history of research has pointed to the importance of fractal fluctuations in physiology, but so far, the physiological evidence of fractal fluctuations has been piecemeal and without clues to bodywide integration. What remains unknown is how fractal fluctuations might interact across the body and how those interactions might support the coordination of goal-directed behaviors. We demonstrate that a complex interplay of fractality in mechanical fluctuations across the body supports a more accurate perception of heaviness and length of occluded handheld objects via effortful touch in blindfolded individuals. For a given participant, the flow of fractal fluctuation through the body indexes the flow of perceptual information used to derive perceptual judgments. These patterns in the waxing and waning of fluctuations across disparate anatomical locations provide novel insights into how the high-dimensional flux of mechanotransduction is compressed into low-dimensional perceptual information specifying properties of hefted occluded objects.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mangalam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carver, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelty-Stephen, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.15.876961</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Global broadcasting of local fractal fluctuations in a bodywide distributed system supports perception via effortful touch]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.17.880062v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
FoodMine: Exploring Food Contents in Scientific Literature 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.17.880062v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Thanks to the many chemical and nutritional components it carries, diet critically affects human health. However, the currently available comprehensive databases on food composition cover only a tiny fraction of the total number of chemicals present in our food, focusing on the nutritional components essential for our health. Indeed, thousands of other molecules, many of which have well documented health implications, remain untracked. To explore the body of knowledge available on food composition, we built FoodMine, an algorithm that uses natural language processing to identify papers from PubMed that potentially report on the chemical composition of garlic and cocoa. After extracting from each paper information on the reported quantities of chemicals, we find that the scientific literature carries extensive information on the detailed chemical components of food that is currently not integrated in databases. Finally, we use unsupervised machine learning to create chemical embeddings, finding that the chemicals identified by FoodMine tend to have direct health relevance, reflecting the scientific communitys focus on health-related chemicals in our food.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hooton, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menichetti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.17.880062</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[FoodMine: Exploring Food Contents in Scientific Literature]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.18.880658v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Offline tDCS modulates prefrontal cortical-subcortical cerebellar fear pathways in delayed fear extinction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.18.880658v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been studied to enhance extinction-based treatments for anxiety disorders. However, the field shows conflicting results about the anxiolytic effect of tDCS and only a few studies have previously observed the extinction of consolidated memories.

Off-line tDCS modulates subsequent fear response (fear recall and fear extinction) neural activity and connectivity, throughout changes in the fear pathway that is critically involved in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders.

Thirty-four women participated in a two-day fear conditioning procedure. On day 1, women were randomly assigned to the control group (n=18) or the tDCS group (n=16) and went through a fear acquisition procedure. On day 2, the tDCS group received 20min tDCS at 1mA [cathode - F4; anode - contralateral deltoid] immediately before extinction and while inside the MRI scanner. The control group completed the extinction procedure only.

fMRI whole brain contrast analysis showed stimulation dependent activity patterns with the tDCS group showing decreased neural activity during the processing of the CS+ and increased activity during the processing of the CS, in prefrontal, postcentral and paracentral regions, during late extinction. PPI analysis showed tDCS impact on the connectivity between the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and three clusters along the cortical-amygdalo-hippocampal- cerebellar pathway, during the processing of the CS+ in late extinction (TFCE corrected at p <.05).

The increased neuronal activity during the processing of safety cues and the stronger coupling during the processing of threat cues might well be the mechanisms by which tDCS contributes to stimuli discrimination.

HighlightsO_LIThe anxiolytic effect of cathodal tDCS is controversial.
C_LIO_LIWe show cathodal tDCS modulatory effect on delayed extinction of the fear response.
C_LIO_LICathodal tDCS modulates the processing of safe and threatening cues.
C_LIO_LICathodal tDCS modulates the activity and connectivity of the fear network.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Avila, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guiomar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valerio, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goncalves, O. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Almeida, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.18.880658</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Offline tDCS modulates prefrontal cortical-subcortical cerebellar fear pathways in delayed fear extinction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.19.883280v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A mathematical model exhibiting the effect of DNA methylation on the stability boundary in cell-fate networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.19.883280v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cell-fate networks are traditionally studied within the framework of gene regulatory networks. This paradigm considers only interactions of genes through expressed transcription factors and does not incorporate chromatin modification processes. This paper introduces a mathematical model that seamlessly combines gene regulatory networks and DNA methylation, with the goal of quantitatively characterizing the contribution of epigenetic regulation to gene silencing. The "Basin of Attraction percentage" is introduced as a metric to quantify gene silencing abilities. As a case study, a computational and theoretical analysis is carried out for a model of the pluripotent stem cell circuit as well as a simplified self-activating gene model. The results confirm that the methodology quantitatively captures the key role that methylation plays in enhancing the stability of the silenced gene state.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ali Al-Radhawi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.19.883280</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A mathematical model exhibiting the effect of DNA methylation on the stability boundary in cell-fate networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.20.885368v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Self-regulation of single-stranded DNA wrapping dynamics by E. coli SSB promotes both stable binding and rapid dissociation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.20.885368v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
E. coli SSB (EcSSB) is a model protein for studying functions of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) binding proteins (SSBs), which are critical in genome maintenance. EcSSB forms homotetramers that wrap ssDNA in multiple conformations in order to protect these transiently formed regions during processes such as replication and repair. Using optical tweezers, we measure the binding and wrapping of a single long ssDNA substrate under various conditions and free protein concentrations. We show that EcSSB binds in a biphasic manner, where initial wrapping events are followed by unwrapping events as protein density on the substrate passes a critical saturation. Increasing free EcSSB concentrations increase the fraction of EcSSBs in less-wrapped conformations, including a previously uncharacterized EcSSB8 bound state in which [~]8 nucleotides of ssDNA are bound by a single domain of the tetramer with minimal substrate deformation. When the ssDNA is over-saturated with EcSSB, stimulated dissociation rapidly removes excess EcSSB, leaving an array of stably-wrapped EcSSB-ssDNA complexes. We develop a multi-step kinetic model in which EcSSB tetramers transition through multiple wrapped conformations which are regulated through nearest neighbor interactions and ssDNA occupancy. These results provide a mechanism through which otherwise stably bound and wrapped EcSSB tetramers can be rapidly removed from an ssDNA substrate to allow for DNA maintenance and replication functions while still fully protecting ssDNA over a wide range of protein concentrations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Naufer, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morse, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Möller, G. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McIsaac, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouzina, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beuning, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.20.885368</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Self-regulation of single-stranded DNA wrapping dynamics by E. coli SSB promotes both stable binding and rapid dissociation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.27.889444v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Validation of a Mathematical Model of Cancer Incorporating Spontaneous and Induced Evolution to Drug Resistance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.27.889444v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
This paper continues the study of a model which was introduced in earlier work by the authors to study spontaneous and induced evolution to drug resistance under chemotherapy. The model is fit to existing experimental data, and is then validated on additional data that had not been used when fitting. In addition, an optimal control problem is studied numerically.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gevertz, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greene, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.27.889444</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Validation of a Mathematical Model of Cancer Incorporating Spontaneous and Induced Evolution to Drug Resistance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.27.889691v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Ortholog Conjecture Revisited: the Value of Orthologs and Paralogs in Function Prediction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.27.889691v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The computational prediction of gene function is a key step in making full use of newly sequenced genomes. Function is generally predicted by transferring annotations from homologous genes or proteins for which experimental evidence exists. The "ortholog conjecture" proposes that orthologous genes should be preferred when making such predictions, as they evolve functions more slowly than paralogous genes. Previous research has provided little support for the ortholog conjecture, though the incomplete nature of the data cast doubt on the conclusions. Here we use experimental annotations from over 40,000 proteins, drawn from over 80,000 publications, to revisit the ortholog conjecture in two pairs of species: (i) Homo sapiens and Mus musculus and (ii) Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. By making a distinction between questions about the evolution of function versus questions about the prediction of function, we find strong evidence against the ortholog conjecture in the context of function prediction, though questions about the evolution of function remain difficult to address. In both pairs of species, we quantify the amount of data that must be ignored if paralogs are discarded, as well as the resulting loss in prediction accuracy. Taken as a whole, our results support the view that the types of homologs used for function transfer are largely irrelevant to the task of function prediction. Aiming to maximize the amount of data used for this task, regardless of whether it comes from orthologs or paralogs, is most likely to lead to higher prediction accuracy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stamboulian, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guerrero, R. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hahn, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2019.12.27.889691</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Ortholog Conjecture Revisited: the Value of Orthologs and Paralogs in Function Prediction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.07.897934v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
General DNA methylation patterns and environmentally-induced differential methylation in the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.07.897934v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epigenetic modification, specifically DNA methylation, is one possible mechanism for intergenerational plasticity. Before inheritance of methylation patterns can be characterized, we need a better understanding of how environmental change modifies the parental epigenome. To examine the influence of experimental ocean acidification on eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) gonad tissue, oysters were cultured in the laboratory under control (491 {+/-} 49 atm) or high (2550 {+/-} 211 atm) pCO2 conditions for four weeks. DNA from reproductive tissue was isolated from five oysters per treatment, then subjected to bisulfite treatment and DNA sequencing. Irrespective of treatment, DNA methylation was primarily found in gene bodies with approximately 22% of CpGs (2.7% of total cytosines) in the C. virginica genome predicted to be methylated. In response to elevated pCO2, we found 598 differentially methylated loci primarily overlapping with gene bodies. A majority of differentially methylated loci were in exons (61.5%) with less intron overlap (31.9%). While there was no evidence of a significant tendency for the genes with differentially methylated loci to be associated with distinct biological processes, the concentration of these loci in gene bodies, including genes involved in protein ubiquitination and biomineralization suggests DNA methylation may be important for transcriptional control in response to ocean acidification. Changes in gonad methylation also indicate potential for these methylation patterns to be inherited by offspring. Understanding how experimental ocean acidification conditions modify the oyster epigenome, and if these modifications are inherited, allows for a better understanding of how ecosystems will respond to environmental change.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Venkataraman, Y. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Downey-Wall, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ries, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Westfield, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>White, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roberts, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.07.897934</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[General DNA methylation patterns and environmentally-induced differential methylation in the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.14.906297v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Machine learning and dengue forecasting: Comparing random forests and artificial neural networks for predicting dengue burdens at the national sub-national scale in Colombia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.14.906297v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The robust estimate and forecast capability of random forests (RF) has been widely recognized, however this ensemble machine learning method has not been widely used in mosquito-borne disease forecasting. In this study, two sets of RF models were developed for the national and departmental levels in Colombia to predict weekly dengue cases at 12-weeks ahead. A national model based on artificial neural networks (ANN) was also developed and used as a comparator to the RF models. The various predictors included historic dengue cases, satellite-derived estimates for vegetation, precipitation, and air temperature, population counts, income inequality, and education. Our RF model trained on the national data was more accurate for department-specific weekly dengue cases estimation compared to a local model trained only on the departments data. Additionally, the forecast errors of the national RF model were smaller to those of the national ANN model and were increased with the forecast horizon increasing from one-week ahead (mean absolute error, MAE: 5.80; root mean squared error, RMSE: 11.10) to 12-weeks ahead (MAE: 13.38; RMSE: 26.82). There was considerable variation in the relative importance of predictors dependent on forecast horizon. The environmental and meteorological predictors were relatively important for short-term dengue forecast horizons while socio-demographic predictors were relevant for longer-term forecast horizons. This study showed the potential of RF in dengue forecasting with also demonstrating the feasibility of using a national model to forecast at finer spatial scales. Furthermore, sociodemographic predictors are important to include to capture longer-term trends in dengue.

Author summaryDengue virus has the highest disease burden of all mosquito-borne viral diseases, infecting 390 million people annually in 128 countries. Forecasting is an important warning mechanism that can help with proactive planning and response for clinical and public health services. In this study, we compare two different machine learning approaches to dengue forecasting: random forest (RF) and neural networks (NN). National and local (departmental-level) models were compared and used to predict dengue cases in the future. The results showed that the counts of future dengue cases were more accurately estimated by RF than by NN. It was also shown that environmental and meteorological predictors were more important for forecast accuracy for shorter-term forecasts while socio-demographic predictors were more important for longer-term forecasts. Finally, the national model applied to local data was more accurate in dengue forecasting compared to the local model. This research contributes to the field of disease forecasting and highlights different considerations for future forecasting studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhao, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Charland, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carabali, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nsoesie, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maher-Giroux, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rees, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia Balaguera, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaramillo Ramirez, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zinszer, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.14.906297</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Machine learning and dengue forecasting: Comparing random forests and artificial neural networks for predicting dengue burdens at the national sub-national scale in Colombia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.14.906693v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Atf-6 regulates lifespan through ER-mitochondrial calcium homeostasis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.14.906693v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Functional crosstalk between organelles is critical for maintaining cellular homeostasis. Individually, dysfunction of both endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria have been linked to cellular and organismal aging, but little is known about how mechanisms of inter-organelle communication might be targeted to extended longevity. The metazoan unfolded protein response (UPR) maintains ER health through a variety of mechanisms beyond its canonical role in proteostasis, including calcium storage and lipid metabolism. Here we provide evidence that in C. elegans, inhibition of the conserved UPR mediator, activating transcription factor (atf)-6 increases lifespan via modulation of calcium homeostasis and signaling to the mitochondria. Loss of atf-6 confers long life via downregulation of the ER calcium buffering protein, calreticulin. Function of the ER calcium release channel, the inositol triphosphate receptor (IP3R/itr-1), is required for atf-6 mutant longevity while a gain-of-function IP3R/itr-1 mutation is sufficient to extend lifespan. IP3R dysfunction leads to altered mitochondrial behavior and hyperfused morphology, which is sufficient to suppress long life in atf-6 mutants. Highlighting a novel and direct role for this inter-organelle coordination of calcium in longevity, the mitochondrial calcium import channel, mcu-1, is also required for atf-6 mutant longevity. Altogether this study reveals the importance of organellar coordination of calcium handling in determining the quality of aging, and highlights calcium homeostasis as a critical output for the UPR and atf-6 in particular.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Burkewitz, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dutta, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelley, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steinbaugh, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mair, W. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.14.906693</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Atf-6 regulates lifespan through ER-mitochondrial calcium homeostasis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.22.913137v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Fluorescence Labeling of Circulating Tumor Cells with Folate Receptor Targeted Molecular Probes for Diffuse In Vivo Flow Cytometry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.22.913137v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PurposeWe recently developed a new instrument called  diffuse in vivo flow cytometry (DiFC) for enumeration of rare fluorescently-labeled circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in small animals without drawing blood samples. Until now, we have used cell lines that express fluorescent proteins, or were pre-labeled with a fluorescent dye ex-vivo. In this work, we investigated the use of two folate receptor (FR)-targeted fluorescence molecular probes for in vivo labeling of FR+ CTCs for DiFC.

MethodsWe used EC-17 and Cy5-PEG-FR fluorescent probes. We studied the affinity of these probes for L1210A and KB cancer cells, both of which over-express FR. We tested the labeling specificity in cells in culture in vitro, in whole blood, and in mice in vivo. We also studied detectability of labeled cells with DiFC.

ResultsBoth EC-17 and Cy5-PEG-FR probes had high affinity for FR+ CTCs in cell culture in vitro. However, only EC-17 had sufficient specificity for CTCs in whole blood. EC-17 labeled CTCs were also readily detectable in circulation in mice with DiFC.

ConclusionsThis work demonstrates the feasibility of labeling CTCs for DiFC with a cell surface receptor targeted probe, greatly expanding the utility of the method for pre-clinical animal models. Because DiFC uses diffuse light, this method could be also used to enumerate CTCs in larger animal models and potentially even in humans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Patil, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srinivasarao, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amiji, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Low, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niedre, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.22.913137</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Fluorescence Labeling of Circulating Tumor Cells with Folate Receptor Targeted Molecular Probes for Diffuse In Vivo Flow Cytometry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.31.928523v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Two dominant brain states reflect optimal and suboptimal attention 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.31.928523v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Attention is not constant but fluctuates from moment to moment. Previous studies dichotomized these fluctuations into optimal and suboptimal states based on behavioral performance and investigated the difference in brain activity between these states. Although these studies implicitly assume there are two states, this assumption is not guaranteed. Here, we reversed the logic of these previous studies and identified unique states of brain activity during a sustained attention task. We demonstrate a systematic relationship between dynamic brain activity patterns (brain states) and behavioral underpinnings of sustained attention by explaining behavior from two dominantly observed brain states. In four independent datasets, a brain state characterized by default mode network activity was behaviorally optimal and a brain state characterized by dorsal attention network activity was suboptimal. Thus, our study provides compelling evidence for behaviorally optimal and suboptimal attentional states from the sole viewpoint of brain activity. We further demonstrated how these brain states were impacted by motivation, mind wandering, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Within-subject level modulators (motivation and mind wandering) impacted the optimality of behavior in the suboptimal brain state. In contrast, between-subject level differences (ADHD vs healthy controls) impacted the optimal brain state character, namely its frequency.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yamashita, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rothlein, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kucyi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valera, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esterman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-01-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.31.928523</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Two dominant brain states reflect optimal and suboptimal attention]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-01-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.31.928895v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The SensorOverlord predicts the accuracy of measurements with ratiometric biosensors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.31.928895v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Two-state ratiometric biosensors change conformation and spectral properties in response to specific biochemical inputs. Much effort over the past two decades has been devoted to engineering biosensors specific for ions, nucleotides, amino acids, and biochemical potentials. The utility of these biosensors is diminished by empirical errors in fluorescence-ratio signal measurement, which reduce the range of input values biosensors can measure accurately. Here, we present a formal framework and a web-based tool, the SensorOverlord, that predicts the input range of two-state ratiometric biosensors given the experimental error in measuring their signal. We demonstrate the utility of this tool by predicting the range of values that can be measured accurately by biosensors that detect pH, NAD+, NADH, NADPH, histidine, and glutathione redox potential. The SensorOverlord enables users to compare the predicted accuracy of biochemical measurements made with different biosensors, and subsequently select biosensors that are best suited for their experimental needs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stanley, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnsen, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apfeld, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.01.31.928895</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The SensorOverlord predicts the accuracy of measurements with ratiometric biosensors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.03.932871v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Gα/GSA-1 works upstream of PKA/KIN-1 to regulate calcium signaling and contractility in the Caenorhabditis elegans spermatheca 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.03.932871v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Correct regulation of cell contractility is critical for the function of many biological systems. The reproductive system of the hermaphroditic nematode C. elegans contains a contractile tube of myoepithelial cells known as the spermatheca, which stores sperm and is the site of oocyte fertilization. Regulated contraction of the spermatheca pushes the embryo into the uterus. Cell contractility in the spermatheca is dependent on actin and myosin and is regulated, in part, by Ca2+ signaling through the phospholipase PLC-1, which mediates Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum. Here, we describe a novel role for GSA-1/Gs, and protein kinase A, composed of the catalytic subunit KIN-1/PKA-C and the regulatory subunit KIN-2/PKA-R, in the regulation of Ca2+ release and contractility in the C. elegans spermatheca. Without GSA-1/Gs or KIN-1/PKA-C, Ca2+ is not released, and oocytes become trapped in the spermatheca. Conversely, when PKA is activated through either a gain of function allele in GSA-1 (GSA-1(GF)) or by depletion of KIN-2/PKA-R, Ca2+ is increased, and waves of Ca2+ travel across the spermatheca even in the absence of oocyte entry. In the spermathecal-uterine valve, loss of GSA-1/Gs or KIN-1/PKA-C results in sustained, high levels of Ca2+ and a loss of coordination between the spermathecal bag and sp-ut valve. Additionally, we show that depleting phosphodiesterase PDE-6 levels alters contractility and Ca2+ dynamics in the spermatheca, and that the GPB-1 and GPB-2 G{beta} subunits play a central role in regulating spermathecal contractility and Ca2+ signaling. This work identifies a signaling network in which Ca2+ and cAMP pathways work together to coordinate spermathecal contractility.

Author SummaryOrganisms are full of biological tubes that transport substances such as food, liquids, and air through the body. Moving these substances in a coordinated manner, with the correct directionality, timing, and rate is critical for organism health. In this study we used Caenorhabditis elegans, a small transparent worm, to study how cells in biological tubes coordinate how and when they squeeze and relax. The C. elegans spermatheca is part of the reproductive system, which uses calcium signaling to drive the coordinated contractions that push fertilized eggs out into the uterus. Using genetic analysis and a calcium-sensitive fluorescent protein, we show that the G-protein GSA-1 functions with protein kinase A to regulate calcium release, and contraction of the spermatheca. These findings establish a link between G-protein and cAMP signaling that may apply to similar signaling pathways in other systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Castaneda, P. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cecchetelli, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pettit, H. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.03.932871</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Gα/GSA-1 works upstream of PKA/KIN-1 to regulate calcium signaling and contractility in the Caenorhabditis elegans spermatheca]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.06.937649v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Distinct error rates for reference and non-reference genotypes estimated by pedigree analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.06.937649v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Errors in genotype calling can have perverse effects on genetic analyses, confounding association studies and obscuring rare variants. Analyses now routinely incorporate error rates to control for spurious findings. However, reliable estimates of the error rate can be difficult to obtain because of their variance between studies. Most studies also report only a single estimate of the error rate even though genotypes can be miscalled in more than one way. Here, we report a method for estimating the rates at which different types of genotyping errors occur at biallelic loci using pedigree information. Our method identifies potential genotyping errors by exploiting instances where the haplotypic phase has not been faithfully transmitted. The expected frequency of inconsistent phase depends on the combination of genotypes in a pedigree and the probability of miscalling each genotype. We develop a model that uses the differences in these frequencies to estimate rates for different types of genotype error. Simulations show that our method accurately estimates these error rates in a variety of scenarios. We apply this method to a dataset from the whole-genome sequencing of owl monkeys (Aotus nancymaae) in three-generation pedigrees. We find significant differences between estimates for different types of genotyping error, with the most common being homozygous reference sites miscalled as heterozygous and vice versa. The approach we describe is applicable to any set of genotypes where haplotypic phase can reliably be called, and should prove useful in helping to control for false discoveries.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hahn, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.06.937649</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Distinct error rates for reference and non-reference genotypes estimated by pedigree analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.06.937821v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Transcranial Photobiomodulation with Near-Infrared Light from Childhood to Elderliness: Simulation of Dosimetry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.06.937821v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceMajor depressive disorder (MDD) affects over 40 million US adults in their lifetimes. Transcranial photobiomodulation (t-PBM) has been shown to be effective in treating MDD, but the current treatment dosage does not account for anatomical head and brain changes due to aging.

AimWe study effective t-PBM dosage and its variations across age groups using state-of-the-art Monte Caxrlo (MC) simulations and age-dependent brain atlases ranging between 5 to 85 years of age.

ApproachAge-dependent brain models are derived from 18 MRI brain atlases. Two extracranial source positions, F3-F4 and Fp1-Fpz-Fp2 in the EEG 10-20 system, are simulated at five selected wavelengths and energy depositions at two MDD-relevant cortical regions - dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) - are quantified.

ResultsAn overall decrease of energy deposition was found with increasing age. A strong negative correlation between the thickness of extra-cerebral tissues (ECT) and energy deposition, suggesting that increasing ECT thickness over age is primarily responsible for reduced energy delivery. The F3-F4 position appears to be more efficient in reaching dlPFC compared to treating vmPFC via the Fp1-Fpz-Fp2 position.

ConclusionQuantitative simulations revealed age-dependent light delivery across the lifespan of human brains, suggesting the needs for personalized and age-adaptive t-PBM treatment planning.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yuan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cassano, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pias, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.06.937821</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Transcranial Photobiomodulation with Near-Infrared Light from Childhood to Elderliness: Simulation of Dosimetry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.07.939447v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Improving model-based fNIRS analysis using mesh-based anatomical and light-transport models 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.07.939447v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceFunctional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has become an important research tool in studying human brains. Accurate quantification of brain activities via fNIRS relies upon solving computational models that simulate the transport of photons through complex anatomy.

AimWe aim to highlight the importance of accurate anatomical modeling in the context of fNIRS, and propose a robust method for creating high-quality brain/full-head tetrahedral mesh models for neuroimaging analysis.

ApproachWe have developed a surface-based brain meshing pipeline that can produce significantly better brain mesh models compared to conventional meshing techniques. It can convert segmented volumetric brain scans into multi-layered surfaces and tetrahedral mesh models, with typical processing times of only a few minutes and broad utilities, such as in Monte Carlo or finite-element based photon simulations for fNIRS studies.

ResultsA variety of high quality brain mesh models have been successfully generated by processing publicly available brain atlases. In addition, we compare 3 brain anatomical models - the voxel-based brain segmentation, tetrahedral brain mesh and layered-slab brain model, and demonstrate noticeable discrepancies in brain partial-pathlengths when using approximated brain anatomies, ranging between -1.5-23% with the voxelated brain and 36-166% with the layered-slab brain.

ConclusionThe generation and utility of high-quality brain meshes can lead to more accurate brain quantification in fNIRS studies. Our open-source meshing toolboxes "Brain2Mesh" and "Iso2Mesh" are freely available at http://mcx.space/brain2mesh.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tran, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.07.939447</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Improving model-based fNIRS analysis using mesh-based anatomical and light-transport models]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.11.943738v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrating multimodal data sets into a mathematical framework to describe and predict therapeutic resistance in cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.11.943738v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A significant challenge in the field of biomedicine is the development of methods to integrate the multitude of dispersed data sets into comprehensive frameworks to be used to generate optimal clinical decisions. Recent technological advances in single cell analysis allow for high-dimensional molecular characterization of cells and populations, but to date, few mathematical models have attempted to integrate measurements from the single cell scale with other data types. Here, we present a framework that actionizes static outputs from a machine learning model and leverages these as measurements of state variables in a dynamic mechanistic model of treatment response. We apply this framework to breast cancer cells to integrate single cell transcriptomic data with longitudinal population-size data. We demonstrate that the explicit inclusion of the transcriptomic information in the parameter estimation is critical for identification of the model parameters and enables accurate prediction of new treatment regimens. Inclusion of the transcriptomic data improves predictive accuracy in new treatment response dynamics with a concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) of 0.89 compared to a prediction accuracy of CCC = 0.79 without integration of the single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data directly into the model calibration. To the best our knowledge, this is the first work that explicitly integrates single cell clonally-resolved transcriptome datasets with longitudinal treatment response data into a mechanistic mathematical model of drug resistance dynamics. We anticipate this approach to be a first step that demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating multimodal data sets into identifiable mathematical models to develop optimized treatment regimens from data.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Johnson, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howard, G. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morgan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenner, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gardner, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durrett, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mo, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al'Khafaji, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarrett, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yankeelov, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brock, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.11.943738</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrating multimodal data sets into a mathematical framework to describe and predict therapeutic resistance in cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.12.934083v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Brain activation and connectivity in anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder when viewing bodies: relationships to clinical symptoms and perception of appearance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.12.934083v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Anorexia nervosa (AN) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are characterized by distorted perception of appearance, yet no studies have directly compared the neurobiology associated with body perception. We compared brain activation and connectivity in relevant networks when viewing images of others bodies and tested their relationships with clinical symptoms and subjective appearance evaluations. We acquired fMRI data from 64 unmedicated females (20 weight-restored AN, 23 BDD, 21 controls) during a matching task using photos of others bodies that were unaltered or spatial-frequency filtered. With general linear model and independent components analyses we compared brain activation and connectivity in visual, striatal, and parietal networks and performed univariate and partial least squares multivariate analyses to investigate relationships with clinical symptoms and appearance evaluations. BDD but not AN demonstrated hypoactivity in dorsal visual and parietal networks compared to controls. Yet, AN and BDD showed partially overlapping patterns of hyperconnectivity in the dorsal visual network and hypoconnectivity in parietal network compared with controls. Further, there were significant activity and connectivity differences between AN and BDD in both networks. In both groups, activity and/or connectivity were associated with symptom severity and appearance ratings of others bodies. AN and BDD demonstrate both distinct and partially overlapping aberrant neural phenotypes involved in body processing and visually encoding global features. Nevertheless, in each disorder, aberrant activity and connectivity show relationships to clinically relevant symptoms and subjective perception. Results have implications for understanding distinct and shared pathophysiology underlying perceptual distortions for appearance and may inform future novel treatment strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moody, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morfini, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheen, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kerr, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strober, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feusner, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.12.934083</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Brain activation and connectivity in anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder when viewing bodies: relationships to clinical symptoms and perception of appearance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.16.951590v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Accelerating Monte Carlo modeling of structured-light based diffuse optical imaging via "photon sharing" 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.16.951590v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The increasing use of spatially-modulated imaging and single-pixel detection techniques demands computationally efficient methods for light transport modeling. Herein, we report an easy-to-implement yet significantly more efficient Monte Carlo (MC) method for simultaneously simulating spatially modulated illumination and detection patterns accurately in 3-D complex domains. We have implemented this accelerated algorithm, named "photon sharing", in our open-source MC simulators, reporting 13.6x and 5.5x speedups in mesh- and voxel-based MC benchmarks, respectively. In addition, the proposed algorithm is readily used for accelerating the solving of inverse problems in spatially-modulated imaging systems by building Jaco-bians of all illumination-detection pattern pairs concurrently, resulting in a 12.4-fold speed improvement.

https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.16.951590
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yao, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Intes, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.16.951590</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Accelerating Monte Carlo modeling of structured-light based diffuse optical imaging via "photon sharing"]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.24.963637v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
C. elegans processes sensory information to choose between freeloading and self-defense strategies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.24.963637v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hydrogen peroxide is the preeminent chemical weapon that organisms use for combat. Individual cells rely on conserved defenses to prevent and repair peroxide-induced damage, but whether similar defenses might be coordinated across cells in animals remains poorly understood. Here, we identify a neuronal circuit in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans that processes information perceived by two sensory neurons to control the induction of hydrogen-peroxide defenses in the organism. We found that catalases produced by Escherichia coli, the nematodes food source, can deplete hydrogen peroxide from the local environment and thereby protect the nematodes. In the presence of E. coli, the nematodes neurons signal via TGF{beta}-insulin/IGF1 relay to target tissues to repress expression of catalases and other hydrogen-peroxide defenses. This adaptive strategy is the first example of a multicellular organism modulating its defenses when it expects to freeload from the protection provided by molecularly orthologous defenses from another species.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schiffer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Servello, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heath, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amrit, F. R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stumbur, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnsen, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stanley, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tam, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brennan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGowan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogelaar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Serkin, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghazi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apfeld, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.24.963637</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[C. elegans processes sensory information to choose between freeloading and self-defense strategies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.28.970541v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Controlled neighbor exchanges drive glassy behavior, intermittency and cell streaming in epithelial tissues 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.28.970541v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cell neighbor exchanges are integral to tissue rearrangements in biology, including development and repair. Often these processes occur via topological T1 transitions analogous to those observed in foams, grains and colloids. However, in contrast to in non-living materials the T1 transitions in biological tissues are rate-limited and cannot occur instantaneously due to the finite time required to remodel complex structures at cell-cell junctions. Here we study how this rate-limiting process affects the mechanics and collective behavior of cells in a tissue by introducing this important biological constraint in a theoretical vertex-based model as an intrinsic single-cell property. We report in the absence of this time constraint, the tissue undergoes a motility-driven glass transition characterized by a sharp increase in the intermittency of cell-cell rearrangements. Remarkably, this glass transition disappears as T1 transitions are temporally limited. As a unique consequence of limited rearrangements, we also find that the tissue develops spaitally correlated streams of fast and slow cells, in which the fast cells organize into stream-like patterns with leader-follower interactions, and maintain optimally stable cell-cell contacts. The predictions of this work is compared with existing in-vivo experiments in Drosophila pupal development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Das, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sastry, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-02-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.02.28.970541</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Controlled neighbor exchanges drive glassy behavior, intermittency and cell streaming in epithelial tissues]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-02-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.11.986125v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Resting-State Connectivity of Auditory and Reward Systems in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.11.986125v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Music-based interventions have become increasingly widely adopted for dementia and related disorders. Previous research shows that music engages reward-related regions through functional connectivity with the auditory system. Here we characterize intrinsic connectivity of the auditory and reward systems in healthy aging, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) - a predementia phase of cognitive dysfunction, and Alzheimers disease (AD). Using resting-state fMRI data from the Alzheimers Database Neuroimaging Initiative, we tested functional connectivity within and between auditory and reward systems in older adults with MCI, AD, and age-matched healthy controls (N=105). Seed-based correlations were assessed from regions of interest (ROIs) in the auditory network, i.e. anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG), posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG), Heschls Gyrus, and reward network (i.e., nucleus accumbens, caudate, putamen, and orbitofrontal cortex [OFC]). AD individuals were lower in both within-network and between-network functional connectivity in the auditory network and reward networks compared to MCI and healthy controls. Furthermore, graph theory analyses showed that MCI individuals had higher clustering, local efficiency, degrees, and strengths than both AD individuals and healthy controls. Together, the auditory and reward systems show preserved within- and between-network connectivity in MCI relative to AD. These results suggest that music-based interventions have the potential to make an early difference in individuals with MCI, due to the preservation of functional connectivity in reward-related regions and between auditory and reward networks at that initial stage of neurodegeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Belden, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geddes, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hanser, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.03.11.986125</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Resting-State Connectivity of Auditory and Reward Systems in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.11.987479v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Antibiotic hypersensitivity signatures identify targets for attack in the Acinetobacter baumannii cell envelope 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.11.987479v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen that is a critical, high-priority target for new antibiotic development. Clearing of A. baumannii requires relatively high doses of antibiotics across the spectrum, primarily due to its protective cell envelope. Many of the proteins that support envelope integrity and modulate drug action are uncharacterized, largely because there is an absence of orthologs for several proteins that perform essential envelope-associated processes, impeding progress on this front. To identify targets that can synergize with current antibiotics, we performed an exhaustive analysis of A. baumannii mutants causing hypersensitivity to a multitude of antibiotic treatments. By examining mutants with antibiotic hypersensitivity profiles that parallel mutations in proteins of known function, we show that the function of poorly annotated proteins can be predicted and used to identify candidate missing link proteins in essential A. baumannii processes. Using this strategy, we uncovered multiple uncharacterized proteins with critical roles in cell division or cell elongation, and revealed that a predicted cell wall D,D-endopeptidase has an unappreciated function in lipooligosaccharide synthesis. Moreover, we provide a genetic strategy that uses hypersensitivity signatures to predict drug synergies, allowing the identification of {beta}-lactams that work cooperatively based on the cell wall assembly machineries that they preferentially target. These data reveal multiple pathways critical for envelope growth in A. baumannii that can be targeted in combination strategies for attacking the pathogen.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Geisinger, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mortman, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cokol, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Syal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farinha, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fisher, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lazinski, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wood, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anthony, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Opijnen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isberg, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-03-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.03.11.987479</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Antibiotic hypersensitivity signatures identify targets for attack in the Acinetobacter baumannii cell envelope]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-03-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.21.001917v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Exploring Chromosomal Structural Heterogeneity AcrossMultiple Cell Lines 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.21.001917v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We study the structural ensembles of human chromosomes across different cell types. Using computer simulations, we generate cell-specific 3D chromosomal structures and compare them to recently published chromatin structures obtained through microscopy. We demonstrate using a combination of machine learning and polymer physics simulations that epigenetic information can be used to predict the structural ensembles of multiple human cell lines. The chromosomal structures obtained in silico are quantitatively consistent with those obtained through microscopy as well as DNA-DNA proximity ligation assays. Theory predicts that chromosome structures are fluid and can only be described by an ensemble, which is consistent with the observation that chromosomes exhibit no unique fold. Nevertheless, our analysis of both structures from simulation and microscopy reveals that short segments of chromatin make transitions between a closed conformation and an open dumbbell conformation. This conformational transition appears to be consistent with a two-state process with an effective free energy cost of about four times the effective information theoretic temperature. Finally, we study the conformational changes associated with the switching of genomic compartments observed in human cell lines. Genetically identical but epigenetically distinct cell types appear to rearrange their respective structural ensembles to expose segments of transcriptionally active chromatin, belonging to the A genomic compartment, towards the surface of the chromosome, while inactive segments, belonging to the B compartment, move to the interior. The formation of genomic compartments resembles hydrophobic collapse in protein folding, with the aggregation of denser and predominantly inactive chromatin driving the positioning of active chromatin toward the surface of individual chromosomal territories.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cheng, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contessoto, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aiden, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wolynes, P. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-03-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.03.21.001917</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Exploring Chromosomal Structural Heterogeneity AcrossMultiple Cell Lines]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-03-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.03.023036v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Addition of Multiple Introns to a Cas9 Gene Results in Dramatic Improvement in Efficiency for Generation of Gene Knockouts in Plants 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.03.023036v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The recent discovery of the mode of action of the CRISPR/Cas9 system has provided biologists with a useful tool for generating site-specific mutations in genes of interest. In plants, site-targeted mutations are usually obtained by stably transforming a Cas9 expression construct into the plant genome. The efficiency with which mutations are obtained in genes of interest can vary considerably depending on specific features of the constructs, including the source and nature of the promoters and terminators used for expression of the Cas9 gene and the guide RNA, and the sequence of the Cas9 nuclease itself. To optimize the efficiency with which mutations could be obtained in target genes in Arabidopsis thaliana with the Cas9 nuclease, we have investigated several features of its nucleotide and/or amino acid sequence, including the codon usage, the number of nuclear localization signals (NLS) and the presence or absence of introns. We found that the Cas9 gene codon usage had some effect on Cas9 activity and that two NLSs work better than one. However, the most important impact on the efficiency of the constructs was obtained by addition of 13 introns into the Cas9 coding sequence, which dramatically improved editing efficiencies of the constructs; none of the primary transformants obtained with a Cas9 lacking introns displayed a knockout mutant phenotype, whereas between 70% and 100% of primary transformants generated with intronized Cas9 displayed mutant phenotypes. The intronized Cas9 was also found to be effective in other plants such as Nicotiana benthamiana and Catharanthus roseus.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Grützner, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horn, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mortensen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee-Parsons, C. W. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stuttmann, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marillonnet, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.03.023036</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Addition of Multiple Introns to a Cas9 Gene Results in Dramatic Improvement in Efficiency for Generation of Gene Knockouts in Plants]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.06.028415v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rapid Assessment of T-Cell Receptor Specificity of the Immune Repertoire 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.06.028415v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Accurate assessment of TCR-antigen specificity at the whole immune repertoire level lies at the heart of improved cancer immunotherapy, but predictive models capable of high-throughput assessment of TCR-peptide pairs are lacking. Recent advances in deep sequencing and crystallography have enriched the data available for studying TCR-p-MHC systems. Here, we introduce a pairwise energy model, RACER, for rapid assessment of TCR-peptide affinity at the immune repertoire level. RACER applies supervised machine learning to efficiently and accurately resolve strong TCR-peptide binding pairs from weak ones. The trained parameters further enable a physical interpretation of interacting patterns encoded in each specific TCR-p-MHC system. When applied to simulate thymic selection of an MHC-restricted T-cell repertoire, RACER accurately estimates recognition rates for tumor-associated neoantigens and foreign peptides, thus demonstrating its utility in helping address the large computational challenge of reliably identifying the properties of tumor antigen-specific T-cells at the level of an individual patients immune repertoire.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lin, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schafer, N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clementi, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.06.028415</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rapid Assessment of T-Cell Receptor Specificity of the Immune Repertoire]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.06.028472v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Phenotypic switching and adaptive strategies of cancer cells in response to stress: insights from live cell imaging and mathematical modeling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.06.028472v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A major challenge in cancer therapy is drug resistance, which is typically attributed to acquired mutations and tumor heterogeneity. However, emerging evidence suggests that dynamic cellular interactions and group behavior also contribute to drug resistance, although, the details of such mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, by combining real time cellular growth data with mathematical modeling, we showed that the cisplatin-sensitive and tolerant lung cancer cells when co-cultured in cisplatin-free and cisplatin-treated environments, exhibit drastically different group strategies in response to environmental changes. While tolerant cells exhibited a persister-like behaviour and were attenuated by sensitive cells, sensitive cells  learned to evade chemotherapy from tolerant cells when co-cultured. Further, tolerant cells could switch phenotypes to become sensitive, although high cisplatin concentrations suppressed this switching. Finally, switching cisplatin administration from continuous to intermittent suppressed the emergence of tolerant cells, suggesting that intermittent rather than continuous chemotherapy may result in better outcomes in lung cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nam, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohanty, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhattacharya, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kotnala, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Achuthan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hari, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nathan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rangarajan, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Massarelli, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulkarni, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salgia, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.06.028472</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Phenotypic switching and adaptive strategies of cancer cells in response to stress: insights from live cell imaging and mathematical modeling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.21.053231v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Distributed implementation of Boolean functions by transcriptional synthetic circuits 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.21.053231v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Starting in the early 2000s, a sophisticated technology has been developed for the rational construction of synthetic genetic networks that implement specified logical functionalities. Despite impressive progress, however, the scaling necessary in order to achieve greater computational power has been hampered by many constraints, including repressor toxicity and the lack of large sets of mutually-orthogonal repressors. As a consequence, a typical circuit contains no more than roughly seven repressor-based gates per cell. A possible way around this scalability problem is to distribute the computation among multiple cell types, which communicate among themselves using diffusible small molecules (DSMs) and each of which implements a small sub-circuit. Examples of DSMs are those employed by quorum sensing systems in bacteria. This paper focuses on systematic ways to implement this distributed approach, in the context of the evaluation of arbitrary Boolean functions.

The unique characteristics of genetic circuits and the properties of DSMs require the development of new Boolean synthesis methods, distinct from those classically used in electronic circuit design. In this work, we propose a fast algorithm to synthesize distributed realizations for any Boolean function, under constraints on the number of gates per cell and the number of orthogonal DSMs. The method is based on an exact synthesis algorithm to find the minimal circuit per cell, which in turn allows us to build an extensive database of Boolean functions up to a given number of inputs.

For concreteness, we will specifically focus on circuits of up to 4 inputs, which might represent, for example, two chemical inducers and two light inputs at different frequencies. Our method shows that, with a constraint of no more than seven gates per cell, the use of a single DSM increases the total number of realizable circuits by at least 7.58-fold compared to centralized computation. Moreover, when allowing two DSMs, one can realize 99.995% of all possible 4-input Boolean functions, still with at most 7 gates per cell. The methodology introduced here can be readily adapted to complement recent genetic circuit design automation software.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ali Al-Radhawi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tran, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ernst, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Voigt, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.21.053231</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Distributed implementation of Boolean functions by transcriptional synthetic circuits]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.22.054866v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
RADSex: a computational workflow to study sex determination using Restriction Site-Associated DNA Sequencing data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.22.054866v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The study of sex determination and sex chromosome organisation in non-model species has long been technically challenging, but new sequencing methodologies are now enabling precise and high-throughput identification of sex-specific genomic sequences. In particular, Restriction Site-Associated DNA Sequencing (RAD-Seq) is being extensively applied to explore sex determination systems in many plant and animal species. However, software designed to specifically search for sex-biased markers using RAD-Seq data is lacking. Here, we present RADSex, a computational analysis workflow designed to study the genetic basis of sex determination using RAD-Seq data. RADSex is simple to use, requires few computational resources, makes no prior assumptions about type of sex-determination system or structure of the sex locus, and offers convenient visualization through a dedicated R package. To demonstrate the functionality of RADSex, we re-analyzed a published dataset of Japanese medaka, Oryzias latipes, where we uncovered a previously unknown Y chromosome polymorphism. We then used RADSex to analyze new RAD-Seq datasets from 15 fish species spanning multiple systematic orders. We identified the sex determination system and sex-specific markers in six of these species, five of which had no known sex-markers prior to this study. We show that RADSex greatly facilitates the study of sex determination systems in non-model species and outperforms the commonly used RAD-Seq analysis software STACKS. RADSex in speed, resource usage, ease of application, and visualization options. Furthermore, our analysis of new datasets from 15 species provides new insights on sex determination in fish.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Feron, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pan, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Imarazene, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jouanno, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herpin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Journot, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parrinello, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klopp, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kottler, V. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roco, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Du, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kneitz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adolfi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCluskey, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amores, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desvignes, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goetz, F. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takanashi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kawaguchi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Detrich, H. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oliveira, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nobrega, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sakamoto, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakamoto, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wargelius, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karlsen, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stöck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waterhouse, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Braasch, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Postlethwait, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schartl, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guiguen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.22.054866</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[RADSex: a computational workflow to study sex determination using Restriction Site-Associated DNA Sequencing data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.29.068163v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
New Music System Reveals Spectral Contribution to Statistical Learning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.29.068163v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
1Knowledge of speech and music depends upon the ability to perceive relationships between sounds in order to form a stable mental representation of statistical structure. Although evidence exists for the learning of musical scale structure from the statistical properties of sound events, little research has been able to observe how specific acoustic features contribute to statistical learning independent of the effects of long-term exposure. Here, using a new musical system, we show that spectral content is an important cue for acquiring musical scale structure. In two experiments, participants completed probe-tone ratings before and after a half-hour period of exposure to melodies in a novel musical scale with a predefined statistical structure. In Experiment 1, participants were randomly assigned to either a no-exposure control group, or to exposure groups who heard pure tone or complex tone sequences. In Experiment 2, participants were randomly assigned to exposure groups who heard complex tones constructed with odd harmonics or even harmonics. Learning outcome was assessed by correlating pre/post-exposure ratings and the statistical structure of tones within the exposure period. Spectral information significantly affected sensitivity to statistical structure: participants were able to learn after exposure to all tested timbres, but did best at learning with timbres with odd harmonics, which were congruent with scale structure. Results show that spectral amplitude distribution is a useful cue for statistical learning, and suggest that musical scale structure might be acquired through exposure to spectral distribution in sounds.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-04-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.29.068163</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[New Music System Reveals Spectral Contribution to Statistical Learning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-04-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.29.068239v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Epigenetic feedback and stochastic partitioning during cell division can drive resistance to EMT 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.29.068239v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and its reverse process mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) are central to metastatic aggressiveness and therapy resistance in solid tumors. While molecular determinants of both processes have been extensively characterized, the heterogeneity in the response of tumor cells to EMT and MET inducers has come into focus recently, and has been implicated in the failure of anti-cancer therapies. Recent experimental studies have shown that some cells can undergo an irreversible EMT depending on the duration of exposure to EMT-inducing signals. While the irreversibility of MET, or equivalently, resistance to EMT, has not been studied in as much detail, evidence supporting such behavior is slowly emerging. Here, we identify two possible mechanisms that can underlie resistance of cells to undergo EMT: epigenetic feedback in ZEB1/GRHL2 feedback loop and stochastic partitioning of biomolecules during cell division. Identifying the ZEB1/GRHL2 axis as a key determinant of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity across many cancer types, we use mechanistic mathematical models to show how GRHL2 can be involved in both the abovementioned processes, thus driving an irreversible MET. Our study highlights how an isogenic population may contain subpopulation with varying degrees of susceptibility or resistance to EMT, and proposes a next set of questions for detailed experimental studies characterizing the irreversibility of MET/resistance to EMT.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jia, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tripathi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakraborty, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chedere, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rangarajan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.04.29.068239</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Epigenetic feedback and stochastic partitioning during cell division can drive resistance to EMT]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.03.074419v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evolution leads to emergence: An analysis of protein interactomes across the tree of life 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.03.074419v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The internal workings of biological systems are notoriously difficult to understand. Due to the prevalence of noise and degeneracy in evolved systems, in many cases the workings of everything from gene regulatory networks to protein-protein interactome networks remain black boxes. One consequence of this black-box nature is that it is unclear at which scale to analyze biological systems to best understand their function. We analyzed the protein interactomes of over 1800 species, containing in total 8,782,166 protein-protein interactions, at different scales. We demonstrate the emergence of higher order  macroscales in these interactomes and that these biological macroscales are associated with lower noise and degeneracy and therefore lower uncertainty. Moreover, the nodes in the interactomes that make up the macroscale are more resilient compared to nodes that do not participate in the macroscale. These effects are more pronounced in interactomes of Eukaryota, as compared to Prokaryota. This points to plausible evolutionary adaptation for macroscales: biological networks evolve informative macroscales to gain benefits of both being uncertain at lower scales to boost their resilience, and also being  certain at higher scales to increase their effectiveness at information transmission. Our work explains some of the difficulty in understanding the workings of biological networks, since they are often most informative at a hidden higher scale, and demonstrates the tools to make these informative higher scales explicit.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hoel, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klein, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swain, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griebenow, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.03.074419</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evolution leads to emergence: An analysis of protein interactomes across the tree of life]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.04.075176v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Crystal Structure of the Werner's Syndrome Helicase 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.04.075176v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Werner syndrome helicase (WRN) plays important roles in multiple pathways of DNA repair and the maintenance of genome integrity. Recently, loss of WRN was identified as a strong synthetic lethal interaction for microsatellite instable (MSI) cancers making WRN a promising drug target. Yet, structural information for the helicase domain is lacking, which prevents structure-based design of drug molecules. In this study, we show that ATP binding and hydrolysis in the helicase domain are required for genome integrity and viability of MSI cancer cells. We then determined the crystal structure of an ADP bound form of the WRN helicase core at 2.2 [A] resolution. The structure features an atypical mode of nucleotide binding with extensive contacts formed by motif VI, which in turn defines the relative positioning of the two RecA like domains. The structure features a novel additional {beta}-hairpin in the second RecA and an unusual helical hairpin in the Zn2+ binding domain, and modelling DNA substrates based on existing RecQ DNA complexes suggests roles for these features in the binding of alternative DNA structures. We have further analysed possible interfaces formed from the interactions between the HRDC domain and the helicase core by NMR. Together, this study will facilitate the structure-based design of inhibitors against WRN helicase.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Newman, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gavard, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lieb, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ravichandran, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hauer, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Werni, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geist, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boettcher, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rumpel, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samwer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petronczki, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gileadi, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.04.075176</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Crystal Structure of the Werner's Syndrome Helicase]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.04.076315v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Uncovering the genetic blueprint of the C. elegans nervous system 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.04.076315v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite rapid advances in connectome mapping and neuronal genetics, we lack theoretical and computational tools to unveil, in an experimentally testable fashion, the genetic mechanisms that govern neuronal wiring. Here we introduce a computational framework to link the adjacency matrix of a connectome to the expression patterns of its neurons, helping us uncover a set of genetic rules that govern the interactions between adjacent neurons. The method incorporates the biological realities of the system, accounting for noise from data collection limitations, as well as spatial restrictions. The resulting methodology allows us to infer a network of 19 innexin interactions that govern the formation of gap junctions in C. elegans, five of which are already supported by experimental data. As advances in single-cell gene expression profiling increase the accuracy and the coverage of the data, the developed framework will allow researchers to systematically infer experimentally testable connection rules, offering mechanistic predictions for synapse and gap junction formation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kovacs, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.04.076315</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Uncovering the genetic blueprint of the C. elegans nervous system]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.07.083287v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spiny mice (Acomys) exhibit attenuated hallmarks of aging and rapid cell turnover after UV exposure in the skin epidermis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.07.083287v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The study of long-lived and regenerative animal models has revealed diverse protective responses to stressors such as aging and tissue injury. Spiny mice (Acomys) are a unique mammalian model of skin regeneration, but their response to other types of physiological skin damage have not been investigated. In this study, we examine how spiny mice skin responds to acute UVB damage or chronological aging compared to non-regenerative C57Bl/6 mice (M. musculus). We find that, compared to M. musculus, the skin epidermis in A. cahirinus experiences a similar UVB-induced increase in basal cell proliferation but exhibits increased epidermal turnover. Notably, A. cahirinus uniquely form a suprabasal layer co-expressing Keratin 14 and Keratin 10 after UVB exposure concomitant with reduced epidermal inflammatory signaling and reduced markers of DNA damage. In the context of aging, old M. musculus animals exhibit typical hallmarks including epidermal thinning, increased inflammatory signaling and senescence. However, these age-related changes are absent in old A. cahirinus skin. Overall, we find that A. cahirinus have evolved novel responses to skin damage that reveals new aspects of its regenerative phenotype.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wong, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seifert, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maden, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crane, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.07.083287</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spiny mice (Acomys) exhibit attenuated hallmarks of aging and rapid cell turnover after UV exposure in the skin epidermis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.08.084418v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Proteomic Analysis Uncovers Measles Virus Protein C Interaction with p65/iASPP/p53 Protein Complex 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.08.084418v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Viruses manipulate central machineries of host cells to their advantage. They prevent host cell antiviral responses to create a favorable environment for their survival and propagation. Measles virus (MV) encodes two non-structural proteins MV-V and MV-C known to counteract the host interferon response and to regulate cell death pathways. Several molecular mechanisms underlining MV-V regulation of innate immunity and cell death pathways have been proposed, whereas MV-C host protein partners are less studied. We suggest that some cellular factors that are controlled by MV-C protein during viral replication could be components of innate immunity and the cell death pathways. To determine which host factors are targeted by MV-C, we captured both direct and indirect host protein partners of MV-C protein. For this, we used a strategy based on recombinant viruses expressing tagged viral proteins followed by affinity purification and a bottom-up mass spectrometry analysis. From the list of host proteins specifically interacting with MV-C protein in different cell lines we selected the host targets that belong to immunity and cell death pathways for further validation. Direct protein partners of MV-C were determined by applying protein complementation assay (PCA) and the bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) approach. As a result, we found that MV-C protein specifically interacts with p65/iASPP/p53 protein complex that controls both cell death and innate immunity pathways.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Meignie, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Combredet, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santolini, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kovacs, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Douche, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giai Gianetto, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eun, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matondo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacob, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grailhe, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tangy, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Komarova, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.08.084418</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Proteomic Analysis Uncovers Measles Virus Protein C Interaction with p65/iASPP/p53 Protein Complex]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.12.091264v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
TAZ inhibits GR and coordinates hepatic glucose homeostasis in normal physiologic states 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.12.091264v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The elucidation of the mechanisms whereby the liver maintains glucose homeostasis is crucial for the understanding of physiologic and pathologic states. Here, we show a novel role of hepatic transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ) in the inhibition of glucocorticoid receptor (GR). TAZ interacts via its WW domain with the ligand-binding domain of GR to limit the binding of GR to gluconeogenic gene promoters. Therefore, liver-specific TAZ knockout mice show increases in glucose production and blood glucose concentration. Conversely, the overexpression of TAZ in mouse liver reduces the binding of GR to gluconeogenic gene promoters and glucose production. Thus, our findings demonstrate distinct roles of the hippo pathway effector proteins yes-associated protein 1 (YAP) and TAZ in liver physiology: while deletion of hepatic YAP has little effect on glucose homeostasis, hepatic TAZ protein expression decreases upon fasting and coordinates gluconeogenesis in response to physiologic fasting and feeding.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stohr, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiong, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Copps, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>White, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.12.091264</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[TAZ inhibits GR and coordinates hepatic glucose homeostasis in normal physiologic states]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.12.091702v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multifractal signatures of perceptual processing on anatomical sleeves of the human body 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.12.091702v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Research into haptic perception typically concentrates on mechanoreceptors and their supporting neuronal processes. This focus risks ignoring crucial aspects of active perception. For instance, bodily movements influence the information available to mechanoreceptors, entailing that movement facilitates haptic perception. Effortful manual wielding of an object prompts feedback loops at multiple spatiotemporal scales, rippling outwards from the wielding hand to the feet, maintaining an upright posture, and interweaving to produce a nonlinear web of fluctuations throughout the body. Here, we investigated whether and how this bodywide nonlinearity engenders a flow of multifractal fluctuations that could support perception of object properties via dynamic touch. Blindfolded participants manually wielded weighted dowels and reported judgments of heaviness and length. Mechanical fluctuations on the anatomical sleeves, from hand to the upper body, as well as to the postural center of pressure, showed evidence of multifractality arising from nonlinear temporal correlations across scales. The modeling of impulse-response functions obtained from vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis revealed that distinct sets of pairwise exchanges of multifractal fluctuations entailed accuracy in heaviness and length judgments. These results suggest that the accuracy of perception via dynamic touch hinges on specific flowing patterns of multifractal fluctuations that people wear on their anatomical sleeves.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mangalam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carver, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelty-Stephen, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.12.091702</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multifractal signatures of perceptual processing on anatomical sleeves of the human body]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.14.095554v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
BAP31 regulated polarization of macrophages through C/EBP β in cutaneous wound healing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.14.095554v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The functions carried out by macrophages are essential in the processes of repairing skin injury. However, the mechanism of the M2 macrophage and its role in cutaneous wound healing remain elusive. B cell receptor associated protein 31 (BAP31) plays an important role in the immune system, and its function in connection with macrophages has yet to be determined. The present study demonstrates that the process of cutaneous wound healing slowed down in bone marrow-specific BAP31 knock down Lyz2-cre-BAP31flox/flox mice. In addition, further studies show that various kinds of macrophage M2 polarization related factors were regulated by BAP31. Among these molecules C/EBP {beta} was significantly affected. However, IL-4 but not IFN-{gamma}, is able to recover the expression levels of C/EBP {beta} and its downstream transcript factors induced by BAP31. Then, we demonstrated that BAP31 regulated macrophage M2 polarization by negative regulation of IL-4R and positive influence on Egr-2 to affect C/EBP {beta}. Our findings reveal a novel mechanism of BAP31 in regulating M2 macrophage, and provide novel targets for the prevention and treatment of chronic wounds.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yuan, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, J.-c.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, L.-j.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.-y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.14.095554</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[BAP31 regulated polarization of macrophages through C/EBP β in cutaneous wound healing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.19.104760v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Hypothetical control of postural sway 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.19.104760v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Quiet standing exhibits strongly intermittent variability that has inspired at least two interpretations. First, variability can be intermittent through the alternating engagement and disengagement of complementary control processes at distinct scales. A second and perhaps deeper way to interpret this intermittency is through the possibility that postural control depends on cascade-like interactions across many timescales at once, suggesting specific non-Gaussian distributional properties at different timescales. Multiscale probability density function (PDF) analysis shows that quiet standing on a stable surface exhibits a crossover from low, increasing non-Gaussianity (consistent with exponential distributions) at shorter timescales, reflecting inertial control, towards higher non-Gaussianity. Feedback-based control at medium to longer timescales yields a linear decrease characteristic of cascade dynamics. Destabilizing quiet standing with unstable surface or closed eyes serves to attenuate inertial control and to elicit more of the feedback-based control over progressively shorter timescales. The result was to strengthen the appearance of the linear decay indicating cascade dynamics. Finally, both linear and nonlinear indices of postural sway also govern the relative strength of crossover or of linear decay, suggesting that tempering of non-Gaussianity across log-timescale is a function of both extrinsic constraints and endogenous postural control. These results provide new evidence that cascading interactions across longer-timescales supporting postural corrections can even recruit shorter-timescale processes with novel task constraints that can destabilize posture.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mangalam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelty-Stephen, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.19.104760</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hypothetical control of postural sway]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.22.110833v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Towards complete and error-free genome assemblies of all vertebrate species 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.22.110833v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
High-quality and complete reference genome assemblies are fundamental for the application of genomics to biology, disease, and biodiversity conservation. However, such assemblies are only available for a few non-microbial species1-4. To address this issue, the international Genome 10K (G10K) consortium5,6 has worked over a five-year period to evaluate and develop cost-effective methods for assembling the most accurate and complete reference genomes to date. Here we summarize these developments, introduce a set of quality standards, and present lessons learned from sequencing and assembling 16 species representing major vertebrate lineages (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, teleost fishes and cartilaginous fishes). We confirm that long-read sequencing technologies are essential for maximizing genome quality and that unresolved complex repeats and haplotype heterozygosity are major sources of error in assemblies. Our new assemblies identify and correct substantial errors in some of the best historical reference genomes. Adopting these lessons, we have embarked on the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP), an effort to generate high-quality, complete reference genomes for all ~70,000 extant vertebrate species and help enable a new era of discovery across the life sciences.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rhie, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCarthy, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fedrigo, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Damas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Formenti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koren, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uliano-Silva, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chow, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fungtammasan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gedman, G. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cantin, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thibaud-Nissen, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haggerty, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ko, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bista, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haase, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mountcastle, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winkler, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paez, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howard, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vernes, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lama, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grutzner, F. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Warren, W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balakrishnan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burt, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Biegler, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iorns, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Digby, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eason, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edwards, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilkinson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turner, G. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kautt, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franchini, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Detrich, H. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Svardal, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wagner, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naylor, G. J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pippel, M</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.22.110833</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Towards complete and error-free genome assemblies of all vertebrate species]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.29.124297v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
What is an adaptive pattern of brain activity for a child? It depends on their environment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.29.124297v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Prior research indicates that lower resting-state functional coupling between two brain networks, lateral frontoparietal network (LFPN) and default mode network (DMN), relates to better cognitive test performance. However, most study samples skew towards wealthier individuals--and what is adaptive for one population may not be for another. In a pre-registered study, we analyzed resting-state fMRI from 6839 children ages 9-10 years. For children above poverty, we replicated the prior finding: better cognitive performance correlated with weaker LFPN-DMN coupling. For children in poverty, the slope of the relation was instead positive. This significant interaction related to several features of a childs environment. Future research should investigate the possibility that leveraging internally guided cognition is a mechanism of resilience for children in poverty. In sum, "optimal" brain function depends in part on the external pressures children face, highlighting the need for more diverse samples in research on the human brain and behavior.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ellwood-Lowe, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bunge, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.29.124297</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[What is an adaptive pattern of brain activity for a child? It depends on their environment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.05.136424v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ocean acidification induces subtle shifts in gene expression and DNA methylation in mantle tissue of the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.05.136424v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Early evidence suggests that DNA methylation can mediate phenotypic responses of marine calcifying species to ocean acidification (OA). Few studies, however, have explicitly studied DNA methylation in calcifying tissues through time. Here, we examined the phenotypic and molecular responses in the extrapallial fluid and mantle (fluid and tissue at the calcification site) in the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) exposed to experimental OA over 80 days. Oysters were reared under three experimental pCO2 treatments ( control, 580 atm;  moderate OA, 1000 uatm;  high OA, 2800 atm) and sampled at 6 time points (24 hours - 80 days). We found that high OA initially induced changes in the pH of the extrapallial fluid (pHEPF) relative to the external seawater, but the magnitude of this difference was highest at 9 days and diminished over time. Calcification rates were significantly lower in the high OA treatment compared to the other treatments. To explore how oysters regulate their extrapallial fluid, gene expression and DNA methylation were examined in the mantle-edge tissue of oysters from day 9 and 80 in the control and high OA treatments. Mantle tissue mounted a significant global molecular response (both in the transcriptome and methylome) to OA that shifted through time. Although we did not find individual genes that were significantly differentially expressed to OA, the pHEPF was correlated with the eigengene expression of several co-expressed gene clusters. A small number of OA-induced differentially methylated loci were discovered, which corresponded with a weak association between OA-induced changes in genome-wide gene body DNA methylation and gene expression. Gene body methylation, however, was not significantly correlated with the eigengene expression of pHEPF correlated gene clusters. These results suggest that in C. virginica, OA induces a subtle response in a large number of genes, but also indicates that plasticity at the molecular level may be limited. Our study highlights the need to re-assess the plasticity of tissue-specific molecular responses in marine calcifiers, as well as the role of DNA methylation and gene expression in mediating physiological and biomineralization responses to OA.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Downey-Wall, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ford, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNally, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkataraman, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roberts, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ries, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.05.136424</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ocean acidification induces subtle shifts in gene expression and DNA methylation in mantle tissue of the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.05.136895v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Postural instability recruits shorter-timescale processes into the non-Gaussian cascade processes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.05.136895v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Healthy human postural sway exhibits strong intermittency, reflecting a richly interactive foundation of postural control. From a linear perspective, intermittent fluctuations might be interpreted as engagement and disengagement of complementary control processes at distinct timescales or from a nonlinear perspective, as cascade-like interactions across many timescales at once. The diverse control processes entailed by cascade-like multiplicative dynamics suggest specific non-Gaussian distributional properties at different timescales. Multiscale probability density function (PDF) analysis showed that when standing quietly while balancing a sand-filled tube with the two arms elicited non-Gaussianity profiles showing a negative-quadratic crossover between short and long timescales. A more stringent task of balancing a water-filled tube elicited simpler monotonic decreases in non-Gaussianity, that is, a positive-quadratic cancellation of the negative-quadratic crossover. Multiple known indices of postural sway governed the appearance or disappearance of the crossover. Finally, both tasks elicited lognormal distributions over progressively larger timescales. These results provide the first evidence that more stringent postural constraints recruit shorter-timescale processes into the non-Gaussian cascade processes, that indices of postural sway moderate this recruitment, and that more stringent postural constraints show stronger statistical hallmarks of cascade structure.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Furmanek, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mangalam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelty-Stephen, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juras, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.05.136895</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Postural instability recruits shorter-timescale processes into the non-Gaussian cascade processes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.12.147322v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reproductive Barriers as a Byproduct of Gene Network Evolution 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.12.147322v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Molecular analyses of closely related taxa have increasingly revealed the importance of higher-order genetic interactions in explaining the observed pattern of reproductive isolation between populations. Indeed, both empirical and theoretical studies have linked the process of speciation to complex genetic interactions. Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) capture the inter-dependencies of gene expression and encode information about an individuals phenotype and development at the molecular level. As a result, GRNs can-in principle-evolve via natural selection and play a role in non-selective, evolutionary forces. Here, we develop a network-based model, termed the pathway framework, that considers GRNs as a functional representation of coding sequences. We then simulated the dynamics of GRNs using a simple model that included natural selection, genetic drift, and sexual reproduction and found that reproductive barriers can develop rapidly between allopatric populations experiencing identical selection pressure. Further, we show that alleles involved in reproductive isolation can predate the allopatric separation of populations and that the number of interacting loci involved in genetic incompatibilities, i.e., the order, is often high simply as a by-product of the networked structure of GRNs. Finally, we discuss how results from the pathway framework are consistent with observed empirical patterns for genes putatively involved in post-zygotic isolation. Taken together, this study adds support for the central role of gene networks in speciation and in evolution more broadly.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, C.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scarpino, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.12.147322</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reproductive Barriers as a Byproduct of Gene Network Evolution]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.15.153833v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Negative interplay between biofilm formation and competence in the environmental strains of Bacillus subtilis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.15.153833v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Environmental strains of the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis have valuable applications in agriculture, industry, and biotechnology. They are capable of forming robust biofilms and demonstrate excellent biological control activities in plant protection. However, environmental strains are genetically less accessible, a sharp contrast to the laboratory strains well known for their natural competence and a limitation toward their application. In this study, we observed that robust biofilm formation of the environmental strains greatly reduces the rate of competent cells within the biofilm. By using the model strain 3610, we reveal a cross-pathway regulation that allows biofilm matrix producers and competence-developing cells to undergo mutually exclusive cell differentiation. We show that the competence activator ComK represses the key biofilm regulatory gene sinI by directly binding to the sinI promoter, thus blocking competent cells from simultaneously becoming matrix producers. In parallel, the biofilm activator SlrR represses competence through three distinct mechanisms, involving both genetic regulation and cell morphological changes. We discuss potential implications of limiting competence in a bacterial biofilm.

ImportanceThe soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis is capable of forming robust biofilms, a multicellular community important for its survival in the environment. B. subtilis also exhibits natural competence, the ability of cells to acquire genetic materials directly from the environment. By investigating competence development in situ during B. subtilis biofilm formation, we reveal that robust biofilm formation, an important feature of the environmental strains of B. subtilis, often greatly reduces the rate of competent cells within the biofilm. We characterize a cross-pathway regulation that allows cells associated with these two developmental events to undergo mutually exclusive cell differentiation during biofilm formation. Finally, we discuss potential biological implications of limiting competence in a bacterial biofilm.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>She, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hunter, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qin, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicolau, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zalis, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.15.153833</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Negative interplay between biofilm formation and competence in the environmental strains of Bacillus subtilis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.19.161109v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The SPIRE1 actin nucleator coordinates actin/myosin functions in the regulation of mitochondrial motility 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.19.161109v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Subcellular localisation of mitochondria provides a spatial and temporal organisation for cellular energy demands. Long-range mitochondrial transport is mediated by microtubule tracks and associated dynein and kinesin motor proteins. The actin cytoskeleton has a more versatile role and provides transport, tethering, and anchoring functions. SPIRE actin nucleators organise actin filament networks at vesicle membranes, which serve as tracks for myosin 5 motor protein-driven transport processes. Following alternative splicing, SPIRE1 is targeted to mitochondria. In analogy to vesicular SPIRE functions, we have analysed whether SPIRE1 regulates mitochondrial motility. By tracking mitochondria of living fibroblast cells from SPIRE1 mutant mice and splice-variant specific mitochondrial SPIRE1 knockout mice, we determined that the loss of SPIRE1 function increased mitochondrial motility. The SPIRE1 mutant phenotype was reversed by transient overexpression of mitochondrial SPIRE1, which almost completely inhibited motility. Conserved myosin 5 and formin interaction motifs contributed to this inhibition. Consistently, mitochondrial SPIRE1 targeted myosin 5 motors and formin actin filament generators to mitochondria. Our results indicate that SPIRE1 organises an actin/myosin network at mitochondria, which opposes mitochondrial motility.

Summary statementThe mitochondrial SPIRE1 protein targets myosin 5 motor proteins and formin actin-filament nucleators/elongators towards mitochondria and negatively regulates mitochondrial motility.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Straub, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Welz, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alberico, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brandao, R. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huber, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samol-Wolf, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brakebusch, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kollmar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin-Gonzalez, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kerkhoff, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.19.161109</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The SPIRE1 actin nucleator coordinates actin/myosin functions in the regulation of mitochondrial motility]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.19.161711v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Exposure duration modulates the response of Caribbean corals to global change stressors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.19.161711v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Global change is threatening coral reefs, with rising temperatures leading to repeat bleaching events (dysbiosis of coral hosts and their symbiotic algae) and ocean acidification reducing net coral calcification. Although global-scale mass bleaching events are revealing fine-scale patterns of coral resistance and resilience, traits that lead to persistence under environmental stress remain elusive. Here, we conducted a 95-day controlled-laboratory experiment to investigate how duration of exposure to ocean warming (28, 31{degrees}C), acidification (pCO2 = 400-2800 atm), and their interaction influence the physiological responses of two Caribbean reef-building coral species (Siderastrea siderea, Pseudodiploria strigosa) from two reef zones of the Belize Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. Every 30 days, calcification rate, total host protein and carbohydrate, chlorophyll a pigment concentration, and symbiont cell density were quantified for the same coral colony to characterize acclimatory responses of each genotype. Physiologies of the two species were differentially affected by these stressors, with exposure duration modulating responses. Siderastrea siderea was most affected by extreme pCO2 (~2800 atm), which resulted in reduced calcification rate, symbiont density, and chlorophyll a concentration. Siderastrea siderea calcification rate initially declined under extreme pCO2 but recovered by the final time point, and overall demonstrated resistance to next-century pCO2 and temperature stress. In contrast, P. strigosa was more negatively impacted by elevated temperature (31{degrees}C). Reductions in P. strigosa calcification rate and total carbohydrates were consistently observed over time regardless of pCO2 treatment, with the greatest reductions observed under elevated temperature. However, nearshore colonies of P. strigosa maintained calcification rates under elevated temperature throughout all exposure durations, suggesting individuals from this environment may be locally adapted to the warmer temperatures characterizing their natal reef zone. This experiment highlights how tracking individual coral colony physiology across broad exposure durations can capture acclimatory responses of corals to global change stressors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Aichelman, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bove, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castillo, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boulton, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knowlton, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieves, O. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ries, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davies, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.19.161711</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Exposure duration modulates the response of Caribbean corals to global change stressors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.21.163931v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Universal features of epidemic models under social distancing guidelines 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.21.163931v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Social distancing as a form of nonpharmaceutical intervention has been enacted in many countries as a form of mitigating the spread of COVID-19. There has been a large interest in mathematical modeling to aid in the prediction of both the total infected population and virus-related deaths, as well as to aid government agencies in decision making. As the virus continues to spread, there are both economic and sociological incentives to minimize time spent with strict distancing mandates enforced, and/or to adopt periodically relaxed distancing protocols, which allow for scheduled economic activity. The main objective of this study is to reduce the disease burden in a population, here measured as the peak of the infected population, while simultaneously minimizing the length of time the population is socially distanced, utilizing both a single period of social distancing as well as periodic relaxation. We derive a linear relationship among the optimal start time and duration of a single interval of social distancing from an approximation of the classic epidemic SIR model. Furthermore, we see a sharp phase transition region in start times for a single pulse of distancing, where the peak of the infected population changes rapidly; notably, this transition occurs well before one would intuitively expect. By numerical investigation of more sophisticated epidemiological models designed specifically to describe the COVID-19 pandemic, we see that all share remarkably similar dynamic characteristics when contact rates are subject to periodic or one-shot changes, and hence lead us to conclude that these features are universal in epidemic models. On the other hand, the nonlinearity of epidemic models leads to non-monotone behavior of the peak of infected population under periodic relaxation of social distancing policies. This observation led us to hypothesize that an additional single interval social distancing at a proper time can significantly decrease the infected peak of periodic policies, and we verified this improvement numerically. While synchronous quarantine and social distancing mandates across populations effectively minimize the spread of an epidemic over the world, relaxation decisions should not be enacted at the same time for different populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sadeghi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greene, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.21.163931</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Universal features of epidemic models under social distancing guidelines]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.22.165894v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ultra-compact Dual-band Smart NEMS Magnetoelectric Antennas for Simultaneous Wireless Energy Harvesting and Magnetic Field Sensing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.22.165894v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ultra-compact wireless implantable medical devices (IMDs) are in great demand for healthcare applications, in particular for neural recording and stimulation. Current implantable technologies based on miniaturized micro-coils suffer from low wireless power transfer efficiency (PTE) and are not always compliant with the specific absorption rate imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, particularly for deep brain implantation where field attenuation and tissue loss are significant. Moreover, current implantable devices are reliant on recordings of voltage or current. This has two major weaknesses: 1) the necessary direct contact between electrode and tissue degrades over time due to electrochemical fouling and tissue reactions, and 2) the necessity for differential recordings across space. Here, we report, for the first time, an ultra-compact dual-band smart nanoelectromechanical systems magnetoelectric (ME) antenna with a size of 250×174 µm2 that can efficiently perform wireless energy harvesting and sense ultra-small magnetic fields such as those arising from neural activities. The proposed smart ME antenna has a wireless PTE 1∼2 orders of magnitude higher than any other reported miniaturized micro-coil, allowing the wireless IMDs to be compliant with the specific absorption rate (SAR) limit and to operate under safe exposure of radio frequency energy. Furthermore, the magnetic sensing capability of the proposed smart ME antenna, with a limit of detection of 300∼500pT at &gt; 200Hz, should allow the IMDs to record neural magnetic fields from the brain without requiring differential recording.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zaeimbashi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nasrollahpour, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khalifa, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romano, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matyushov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mittal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martos-Repath, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jha, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mirchandani, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Das, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onabajo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shrivastava, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cash, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.22.165894</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ultra-compact Dual-band Smart NEMS Magnetoelectric Antennas for Simultaneous Wireless Energy Harvesting and Magnetic Field Sensing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.24.169300v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
3D Visualization of Macromolecule Synthesis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.24.169300v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Measuring nascent macromolecular synthesis in vivo is key to understanding how cells and tissues progress through development and respond to external cues. Here, we perform in vivo injection of alkyne- or azide-modified analogs of thymidine, uridine, methionine, and glucosamine to label nascent synthesis of DNA, RNA, protein, and glycosylation. Three-dimensional volumetric imaging of nascent macromolecule synthesis was performed in axolotl salamander tissue using whole mount click chemistry-based fluorescent staining followed by light sheet fluorescent microscopy. We also developed an image processing pipeline for segmentation and classification of morphological regions of interest and individual cells, and we apply this pipeline to the regenerating humerus. We demonstrate our approach is sensitive to biological perturbations by measuring changes in DNA synthesis after limb denervation. This method provides a powerful means to quantitatively interrogate macromolecule synthesis in heterogenous tissues at the organ, cellular, and molecular levels of organization.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Duerr, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Comellas, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeon, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farkas, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joetzjer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garnier, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shefelbine, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.24.169300</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[3D Visualization of Macromolecule Synthesis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.24.169847v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dopamine-related striatal neurophysiology is associated with specialization of frontostriatal reward circuitry through adolescence 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.24.169847v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Characterizing developmental changes in frontostriatal circuitry is critical to our understanding of adolescent development and can clarify neurobiological mechanisms underlying increased reward sensitivity and sensation seeking, and the emergence of psychopathology during this period. However, the role of striatal neurobiology in the development of frontostriatal circuitry through human adolescence remains largely unknown. We combine longitudinal MR-based assessments of striatal tissue-iron as a correlate of dopamine-related neurobiology with functional magnetic resonance imaging indices of resting-state and reward-state connectivity to investigate the contribution of dopaminergic processes to developmental changes in frontostriatal circuitry. Connectivity between the nucleus accumbens and ventral anterior cingulate, subgenual cingulate, and orbitofrontal cortices decreased through adolescence into adulthood. Nucleus accumbens tissue-iron mediated age-related changes and was associated with variability in connectivity. Our results provide evidence that developmental changes in dopamine-related striatal properties contribute to specialization of frontostriatal circuitry, potentially underlying changes in sensation seeking and reward sensitivity into adulthood.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Parr, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calabro, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Larsen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tervo-Clemmens, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foran, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olafsson, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luna, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.24.169847</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dopamine-related striatal neurophysiology is associated with specialization of frontostriatal reward circuitry through adolescence]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.27.175687v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stiffening of the Extracellular Matrix is a Sufficient Condition for AirwayHyperreactivity. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.27.175687v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The current therapeutic approach to asthma focuses exclusively on targeting inflammation and reducing airway smooth muscle force in an effort to prevent the recurrence of symptoms. However, the treatment is not a cure and has little beneficial effect on the progression of asthma. This suggests that there are mechanisms at play that are likely triggered by inflammation and eventually become self-sustaining so that even when airway inflammation is brought back under control, these alternative mechanisms continue to drive airway hyperreactivity in asthmatics. In this study, we hypothesized that the stiffening of the airway extracellular matrix is a core pathological change sufficient to support excessive bronchoconstriction in asthmatics even when in the absence of inflammation. To test this hypothesis, we increased the stiffness of airway ECM by photo-crosslinking collagen fibers within the airway wall using riboflavin (vitamin B2) and Ultraviolet-A radiation. In our experiments, collagen crosslinking led to a three-fold increase in stiffness of the airway extracellular matrix. This change was sufficient to cause airways to constrict to a greater degree, at a faster rate when exposed to a low dose of contractile agonist. Our results highlight the need for therapeutic approaches that target matrix remodeling to develop a lasting cure for this disease.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.View Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jamieson, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stasiak, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polio, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruberti, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parameswaran, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-06-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.06.27.175687</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stiffening of the Extracellular Matrix is a Sufficient Condition for AirwayHyperreactivity.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-06-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.02.184325v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Resilience and evolvability of protein-protein interaction networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.02.184325v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks represent complex intra-cellular protein interactions, and the presence or absence of such interactions can lead to biological changes in an organism. Recent network-based approaches have shown that a phenotypes PPI networks resilience to environmental perturbations is related to its placement in the tree of life; though we still do not know how or why certain intra-cellular factors can bring about this resilience. Here, we explore the influence of gene expression and network properties on PPI networks resilience. We use publicly-available data of PPIs for E. coli, S. cerevisiae, and H. sapiens, where we compute changes in network resilience as new nodes (proteins) are added to the networks under three node addition mechanisms--random, degree-based, and gene-expression-based attachments. By calculating the resilience of the resulting networks, we estimate the effectiveness of these node addition mechanisms. We demonstrate that adding nodes with gene-expression-based preferential attachment (as opposed to random or degree-based) preserves and can increase the original resilience of PPI network in all three species, regardless of gene expression distribution or network structure. These findings introduce a general notion of prospective resilience, which highlights the key role of network structures in understanding the evolvability of phenotypic traits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Klein, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holmer, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swain, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stolp, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teufel, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kleppe, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.02.184325</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Resilience and evolvability of protein-protein interaction networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.02.185082v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Primary human colonic mucosal barrier crosstalk with super oxygen-sensitive Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in continuous culture 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.02.185082v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The gut microbiome plays an important role in human health and disease. Gnotobiotic animal and in vitro cell-based models provide some informative insights into mechanistic crosstalk. However, there is no existing system for a chronic co-culture of a human colonic mucosal barrier with super oxygen-sensitive commensal microbes, hindering the study of human-microbe interactions in a controlled manner. Here, we investigated the effects of an abundant super oxygen-sensitive commensal anaerobe, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, on a primary human mucosal barrier using a Gut-MIcrobiome (GuMI) physiome platform that we designed and fabricated. Chronic continuous co-culture of F. prausnitzii for two days with colon epithelia, enabled by continuous flow of completely anoxic apical media and aerobic basal media, resulted in a strictly anaerobic apical environment fostering growth of and butyrate production by F. prausnitzii, while maintaining a stable colon epithelial barrier. We identified elevated differentiation and hypoxia-responsive genes and pathways in the platform compared with conventional aerobic static culture of the colon epithelia, attributable to a combination of anaerobic environment and continuous medium replenishment. Furthermore, we demonstrated anti-inflammatory effects of F. prausnitzii through HDAC and the TLR-NFKB axis. Finally, we identified that butyrate largely contributes to the anti-inflammatory effects by downregulating TLR3 and TLR4. Our results are consistent with some clinical observations regarding F. prausnitzii, thus motivating further studies employing this platform with more complex engineered colon tissues for understanding the interaction between the human colonic mucosal barrier and microbiota, pathogens, or engineered bacteria.Competing Interest StatementA provisional patent was filed.View Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoon, J.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kemmitt, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wright, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schneider, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sphabmixay, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez-Gordillo, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holcomb, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhushan, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rohatgi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benton, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carpenter, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kester, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eng, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breault, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yilmaz, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taketani, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Voigt, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carrier, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trumper, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffith, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.02.185082</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Primary human colonic mucosal barrier crosstalk with super oxygen-sensitive Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in continuous culture]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.03.186965v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
FLN-1/Filamin is required to anchor the actomyosin cytoskeleton and for global organization of sub-cellular organelles in a contractile tissue 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.03.186965v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Actomyosin networks are organized in space, direction, size, and connectivity to produce coordinated contractions across cells. We use the C. elegans spermatheca, a tube composed of contractile myoepithelial cells, to study how actomyosin structures are organized. FLN-1/filamin is required for the formation and stabilization of a regular array of parallel, contractile, actomyosin fibers in this tissue. Loss of fln-1 results in the detachment of actin fibers from the basal surface, which then accumulate along the cell junctions and are stabilized by spectrin. In addition, actin and myosin are captured at the nucleus by the linker of nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton complex (LINC) complex, where they form large foci. Nuclear positioning and morphology, distribution of the endoplasmic reticulum and the mitochondrial network are also disrupted. These results demonstrate that filamin is required to prevent large actin bundle formation and detachment, to prevent excess nuclear localization of actin and myosin, and to ensure correct positioning of organelles.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.AbbreviationsFRAPfluorescence recovery after photobleachingGFPgreen fluorescent proteinKASHKlarsicht/ANC-1/Syne homologyLINClinker of nucleoskeleton and cytoskeletonmoeABDmoesin actin binding domainRNAiRNA interferencesp-utspermatheca-uterineSUNSad1/UNC-84WTwild typeView Full Text
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kelley, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Triplett, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mallick, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burkewitz, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mair, W. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.03.186965</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[FLN-1/Filamin is required to anchor the actomyosin cytoskeleton and for global organization of sub-cellular organelles in a contractile tissue]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.03.187211v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Combinatorial transcriptional profiling of mouse and human enteric neurons identifies shared and disparate subtypes in situ. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.03.187211v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWO_ST_ABSBACKGROUND & AIMSC_ST_ABSThe enteric nervous system (ENS) coordinates essential intestinal functions through the concerted action of diverse enteric neurons (EN). However, integrated molecular knowledge of EN subtypes is lacking. To compare human and mouse ENs, we transcriptionally profiled healthy ENS from adult humans and mice. We aimed to identify transcripts marking discrete neuron subtypes and visualize conserved EN subtypes for humans and mice in multiple bowel regions.

METHODSHuman myenteric ganglia and adjacent smooth muscle were isolated by laser-capture microdissection for RNA-Seq. Ganglia-specific transcriptional profiles were identified by computationally subtracting muscle gene signatures. Nuclei from mouse myenteric neurons were isolated and subjected to single-nucleus RNA-Seq (snRNA-Seq), totaling over four billion reads and 25,208 neurons. Neuronal subtypes were defined using mouse snRNA-Seq data. Comparative informatics between human and mouse datasets identified shared EN subtype markers, which were visualized in situ using hybridization chain reaction (HCR).

RESULTSSeveral EN subtypes in the duodenum, ileum, and colon are conserved between humans and mice based on orthologous gene expression. However, some EN subtype-specific genes from mice are expressed in completely distinct morphologically defined subtypes in humans. In mice, we identified several neuronal subtypes that stably express gene modules across all intestinal segments, with graded, regional expression of one or more marker genes.

CONCLUSIONSOur combined transcriptional profiling of human myenteric ganglia and mouse EN provides a rich foundation for developing novel intestinal therapeutics. There is congruency among some EN subtypes, but we note multiple species differences that should be carefully considered when relating findings from mouse ENS research to human GI studies.



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]]></description>
<dc:creator>May-Zhang, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tycksen, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Southard-Smith, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deal, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benthal, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buehler, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simmons, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matlock, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flaherty, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Potter, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lau, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Southard-Smith, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.03.187211</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Combinatorial transcriptional profiling of mouse and human enteric neurons identifies shared and disparate subtypes in situ.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.04.187401v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cognitive Benefits of Exercise Interventions: An fMRI Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.04.187401v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite a growing number of functional MRI studies reporting exercise-induced changes during cognitive processing, a systematic determination of the underlying neurobiological pathways is currently lacking. To this end, our neuroimaging meta-analysis included 20 studies and investigated the influence of exercise on cognition-related functional brain activation. The overall meta-analysis encompassing all experiments revealed exercise-induced changes in the left parietal lobe during cognitive processing. Subgroup analysis further revealed that in the younger-age group (<35 years old) exercise induced more widespread changes in the right hemisphere whereas in the older-age group ([&ge;]35 years old) exercise-induced changes were restricted to the left parietal lobe. Furthermore, subgroup analysis for exercise intervention duration, showed that shorter exercise interventions induced changes in regions connected with frontoparietal and default mode networks whereas regions exhibiting effects of longer interventions connected with frontoparietal and dorsal attention networks. Our findings suggest that physical exercise training leads to changes in functional activation patterns primarily located in precuneus and associated with frontoparietal, dorsal attention and default mode networks. Furthermore, exercise-induced changes in functional brain activation varied as a function of age and exercise intervention duration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herold, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Becker, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>KluGah-Brown, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perrey, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Veronese, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muller, N. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kramer, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.04.187401</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cognitive Benefits of Exercise Interventions: An fMRI Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.06.189696v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A DNA-based optical nanosensor for in vivo imaging of acetylcholine in the peripheral nervous system 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.06.189696v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The ability to monitor the release of neurotransmitters during synaptic transmission would significantly impact the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disease. Here, we present a DNA-based enzymatic nanosensor for quantitative detection of acetylcholine (ACh) in the peripheral nervous system of living mice. ACh nanosensors consist of DNA as a scaffold, acetylcholinesterase as a recognition component, pH-sensitive fluorophores as signal generators, and -bungarotoxin as a targeting moiety. We demonstrate the utility of the nanosensors in the submandibular ganglia of living mice to sensitively detect ACh ranging from 0.228 M to 358 M. In addition, the sensor response upon electrical stimulation of the efferent nerve is dose-dependent, reversible, and we observe a reduction of ~76% in sensor signal upon pharmacological inhibition of ACh release. Equipped with an advanced imaging processing tool, we further spatially resolve ACh signal propagation on the tissue level. Our platform enables sensitive measurement and mapping of ACh transmission in the peripheral nervous system.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Micovic, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poskanzer, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.06.189696</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A DNA-based optical nanosensor for in vivo imaging of acetylcholine in the peripheral nervous system]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.07.192120v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Extracting neural signals from semi-immobilized animals with deformable non-negative matrix factorization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.07.192120v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Extracting calcium traces from populations of neurons is a critical step in the study of the large-scale neural dynamics that govern behavior. Accurate activity extraction requires the correction of motion and movement-induced deformations as well as demixing of signals that may overlap spatially due to limitations in optical resolution. Traditionally, non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) methods have been successful in demixing and denoising cellular calcium activity in relatively motionless or pre-registered videos. However, standard NMF methods fail in animals undergoing significant non-rigid motion; similarly, standard image registration methods based on template matching can fail when large changes in activity lead to mismatches with the image template. To address these issues simultaneously, we introduce a deformable non-negative matrix factorization (dNMF) framework that jointly optimizes registration with signal demixing. On simulated data and real semi-immobilized C. elegans microscopy videos, dNMF outperforms traditional demixing methods that account for motion and demixing separately. Finally, following the extraction of neural traces from multiple imaging experiments, we develop a quantile regression time-series normalization technique to account for varying neural signal intensity baselines across different animals or different imaging setups. Open source code implementing this pipeline is available at https://github.com/amin-nejat/dNMF.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nejatbakhsh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varol, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yemini, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samuel, A. D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paninski, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.07.192120</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Extracting neural signals from semi-immobilized animals with deformable non-negative matrix factorization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.13.200634v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The heat shock transcription factor HSF-1 protects Caenorhabditis elegans from peroxide stress 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.13.200634v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cells induce conserved defense mechanisms that protect them from oxidative stress. How these defenses are regulated in multicellular organisms is incompletely understood. Using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, we show that the heat shock transcription factor HSF-1 protects the nematode from the oxidative stress induced by environmental peroxide. In response to a heat shock or a mild temperature increase, HSF-1 protects the nematodes from subsequent oxidative stress in a manner that depends on HSF-1s transactivation domain. At constant temperature, HSF-1 protects the nematodes from oxidative stress independently of its transactivation domain, likely by inducing the expression of asp-4/cathepsin D and dapk-1/dapk. Thus, two distinct HSF-1-dependent processes protect C. elegans from oxidative stress.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Servello, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apfeld, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.13.200634</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The heat shock transcription factor HSF-1 protects Caenorhabditis elegans from peroxide stress]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.15.205070v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Raf promotes dimerization of the Ras G-domain with increased allosteric connections 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.15.205070v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ras dimerization is critical for Raf activation, yet Ras alone does not dimerize. Here we show that the Ras binding domain of Raf (Raf-RBD) induces robust Ras dimerization at low surface densities on supported lipid bilayers and, to a lesser extent, in solution as observed by size exclusion chromatography and confirmed by SAXS. Community network analysis based on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations show robust allosteric connections linking the two Raf-RBD D113 residues, located in the Galectin scaffold protein binding site of each Raf-RBD molecule and 85 [A] apart on opposite ends of the dimer complex. Our results suggest that Raf-RBD binding and Ras dimerization are concerted events that lead to a high-affinity signaling complex at the membrane that we propose is an essential unit in the macromolecular assembly of higher order Ras/Raf/Galectin complexes important for signaling through the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK pathway.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Packer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parker, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Y. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cookis, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guterres, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hossain, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donnelly, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agar, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makowski, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Groves, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mattos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.15.205070</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Raf promotes dimerization of the Ras G-domain with increased allosteric connections]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.17.209486v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Visual effort moderates postural cascade dynamics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.17.209486v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Standing still and focusing on a visible target in front of us is a preamble to many coordinated behaviors (e.g., reaching an object). Hiding behind its apparent simplicity is a deep layering of texture at many scales. The task of standing still laces together activities at multiple scales: from ensuring that a few photoreceptors on the retina cover the target in the visual field on an extremely fine scale to synergies spanning the limbs and joints at smaller scales to the mechanical layout of the ground underfoot and optic flow in the visual field on the coarser scales. Here, we used multiscale probability density function (PDF) analysis to show that postural fluctuations exhibit similar statistical signatures of cascade dynamics as found in fluid flow. In participants asked to stand quietly, the oculomotor strain of visually fixating at different distances moderated postural cascade dynamics. Visually fixating at a comfortable viewing distance elicited posture with a similar cascade dynamics as posture with eyes closed. Greater viewing distances known to stabilize posture showed more diminished cascade dynamics. In contrast, nearest and farthest viewing distances requiring greater oculomotor strain to focus on targets elicited a dramatic strengthening of postural cascade dynamics, reflecting active postural adjustments. Critically, these findings suggest that vision stabilizes posture by reconfiguring the prestressed poise that prepares the body to interact with different spatial layouts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mangalam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, I.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Newell, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelty-Stephen, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.17.209486</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Visual effort moderates postural cascade dynamics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.17.209502v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Visual effort moderates a self-correcting nonlinear postural control policy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.17.209502v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Visually guided postural control emerges in response to task constraints. Task constraints generate physiological fluctuations that foster the exploration of available sensory information at many scales. Temporally correlated fluctuations quantified using fractal and multifractal metrics have been shown to carry perceptual information across the body. The risk of temporally correlated fluctuations is that stable sway appears to depend on a healthy balance of standard deviation (SD): too much or too little SD entails destabilization of posture. This study presses on the visual guidance of posture by prompting participants to quietly stand and fixate at distances within, less than, and beyond comfortable viewing distance. Manipulations of the visual precision demands associated with fixating nearer and farther than comfortable viewing distance reveals an adaptive relationship between SD and temporal correlations in postural fluctuations. Changing the viewing distance of the fixation target shows that increases in temporal correlations and SD predict subsequent reductions in each other. These findings indicate that the balance of SD within stable bounds may depend on a tendency for temporal correlations to self-correct across time. Notably, these relationships became stronger with greater distance from the most comfortable viewing and reaching distance, suggesting that this self-correcting relationship allows the visual layout to press the postural system into a poise for engaging with objects and events. Incorporating multifractal analysis showed that all effects attributable to monofractal evidence were better attributed to multifractal evidence of nonlinear interactions across scales. These results offer a glimpse of how current nonlinear dynamical models of self-correction may play out in biological goal-oriented behavior. We interpret these findings as part of the growing evidence that multifractal nonlinearity is a modeling strategy that resonates strongly with ecological-psychological approaches to perception and action.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kelty-Stephen, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, I.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carver, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Newell, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mangalam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.17.209502</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Visual effort moderates a self-correcting nonlinear postural control policy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.18.210401v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Proprioceptive afferents differentially contribute to effortful perception of object heaviness and mass distribution 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.18.210401v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
When humans handle a tool, such as a tennis racket or hammer, for the first time, they often wield it to determine its inertial properties, however, the mechanisms that contribute to perception of inertial properties are not fully understood. The goal of the present study was to investigate how proprioceptive afferents contribute to effortful perception of heaviness and mass distribution of a manually wielded object in the absence of vision. Blindfolded participants manually wielded a set of specially-designed experimental objects of different mass and mass distribution about the wrist at different wrist angles and wrist angular kinematics. By independently manipulating these variables, we aimed to elicit different levels of tonic and rhythmic activity in the muscle spindles of the wrist flexors and extensors and relate them to reported perceptual judgments of heaviness and length. Perception of heaviness and length were predominantly dependent on an objects static moment and the moment of inertia, respectively. Manipulations of wrist angle and wrist angular kinematics affected perceptual judgments of heaviness and length in relatively opposite ways. As for wrist angle, ulnar deviation consistently resulted in an object being perceived heavier but shorter. Compared to static holding, wielding the object resulted in it being perceived heavier but wielding did not affect perceived length. These results suggest that proprioceptive afferents differentially contribute to effortful perception of object heaviness and mass distribution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mangalam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.18.210401</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Proprioceptive afferents differentially contribute to effortful perception of object heaviness and mass distribution]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.19.210930v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Statistical classification of dynamic bacterial growth with sub-inhibitory concentrations of nanoparticles and its implications for disease treatment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.19.210930v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Nanoparticles are promising alternatives to antibiotics since nanoparticles are easy to manufacture, non-toxic, and do not promote resistance. Nanoparticles act via physical disruption of the bacterial membrane and/or the generation of high concentrations of reactive-oxygen species locally. Potential for physical disruption of the bacterial membrane may be quantified by free energy methods, such as the extended Derjuan-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory, which predicts the initial surface-material interactions. The generation of reactive-oxygen species may be quantified using enthalpies of formation to predict minimum inhibitory concentrations. Neither of these two quantitative structure-activity values describes the dynamic, in situ behavioral changes in the bacterias struggle to survive. In this paper, borrowing parameters from logistic, oscillatory, and diauxic growth models, we use principal component analysis and agglomerative hierarchical clustering to classify survival modes across nanoparticle types and concentrations. We compare the growth parameters of 170 experimental interactions between nanoparticles and bacteria. The bacteria studied include Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Helicobacter pylori, and were tested across multiple concentrations of liposomal drug delivery systems, amphiphilic peptide, and silver and selenium nanoparticles. Clustering reveals specific pairs of bacteria and nanoparticles where the nanoparticle induced growth dynamics could potentially spread the infection through the development of resistance and tolerance. This rapid screening also shows that bacteria generated nanoparticles do not induce growth modes indicative of the development of resistance. This methodology can be used to rapidly screen for novel therapeutics that do not induce resistance before using more robust intracellular content screening. This methodology can also be used as a quality check on batch manufactured nanoparticles.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jones, A.-A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Medina-Cruz, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, N. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartomeu Garcia, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baranda-Pellejero, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bassous, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Webster, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.19.210930</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Statistical classification of dynamic bacterial growth with sub-inhibitory concentrations of nanoparticles and its implications for disease treatment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.20.212845v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Magnetic Temporal Interference For Noninvasive, High-resolution, and Localized Deep Brain Stimulation: Concept Validation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.20.212845v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Non-invasive deep brain stimulation has been a major challenge in the field of neuroscience and brain stimulation in the past three decades. Current brain stimulation technologies suffer from such hurdles as the inability to do deep brain stimulation, poor spatial resolution, and invasiveness. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technique, for instance, cannot target brain regions deeper than [~]2cm and has a poor spatial resolution, impacting a large area of the peripheral region and leading to various side effects. Implantable electrodes, even though effective for deep brain stimulation, are invasive and carry various drawbacks related to the surgery and site infection. In this paper, we propose a new concept that relies on temporal interference of two high- frequency magnetic fields generated by two electromagnetic coils. The neural system does not respond to each of these high-frequency magnetic fields alone because of the intrinsic low-pass filtering properties of the neural membrane. The peripheral areas of the brain are impacted only by the high-frequency magnetic fields that cannot stimulate the nerves, while the deep brain area where the two fields interfere experiences a magnetic field that contains a low-frequency envelope and therefore the nerves can be stimulated. This technique can noninvasively focus a magnetic or electric beam at any depth inside the brain with a high resolution, without impacting the peripheral regions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zaeimbashi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khalifa, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cash, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.20.212845</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Magnetic Temporal Interference For Noninvasive, High-resolution, and Localized Deep Brain Stimulation: Concept Validation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.23.217893v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Retinal optic flow during natural locomotion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.23.217893v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We examine the structure of visual motion on the retina during natural locomotion in real world environments. Natural locomotion generates a rhythmic translation and rotation profile of the head in space, which means that visually specified heading varies throughout the gait cycle. This presents a challenge if optic flow is to be used to control heading towards a goal. The complex, phasic head movements that occur through the gait cycle create a highly unstable pattern of flow relative to the head. In contrast, vestibular-ocular-reflex mediated fixation simplifies patterns of optic flow on the retinae, resulting in regular features that may be valuable for the control of locomotion. In particular, the sign and magnitude of foveal curl in retinal flow fields specifies the bodys trajectory relative to the fixation point. In addition, the peak in the divergence of the retinal flow field specifies the walkers instantaneous overground velocity/momentum vector in retinotopic coordinates. Assuming that walkers can determine the body position relative to fixation, this time-varying retinotopic cue for the bodys momentum could provide a visual control signal for foot placement over complex terrain. In contrast, the temporal variation of heading is large enough to be problematic for use in steering towards a goal. Consideration of optic flow in the context of natural locomotion therefore suggests a re-evaluation of the role of optic flow in the visual control of locomotion.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Matthis, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muller, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonnen, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayhoe, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.23.217893</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Retinal optic flow during natural locomotion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.23.218164v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The genetic architecture of the sexually selected sword ornament and its evolution in hybrid populations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.23.218164v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Biologists since Darwin have been fascinated by the evolution of sexually selected ornaments, particularly those that reduce viability. Uncovering the genetic architecture of these traits is key to understanding how they evolve and are maintained. Here, we investigate the genetic architecture of a sexually selected ornament, the "sword" fin extension that characterizes many species of swordtail fish (Xiphophorus). Using sworded and swordless sister species of Xiphophorus, we generated a mapping population and show that the sword ornament is polygenic - with ancestry across the genome explaining substantial variation in the trait. After accounting for the impacts of genome-wide ancestry, we identify one major effect QTL that explains [~]5% of the overall variation in the trait. Using a series of approaches, we narrow this large QTL interval to a handful of likely candidate genes, including the gene sp8. Notably, sp8 plays a regulatory role in fin regeneration and harbors several derived substitutions that are predicted to impact protein function in the species that has lost the sword ornament. Furthermore, we find evidence of selection on ancestry at sp8 in four natural hybrid populations, consistent with selection against the sword in these populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Powell, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Payne, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keegan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banerjee, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andolfatto, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schumer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenthal, G. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.23.218164</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The genetic architecture of the sexually selected sword ornament and its evolution in hybrid populations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.25.221184v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A mitochondrial mutational signature of temperature and longevity in ectothermic and endothermic vertebrates. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.25.221184v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The variation in the mutational spectrum of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) among species is not well understood. Recently, we demonstrated an increase in A>G substitutions on a heavy chain (hereafter AH>GH) of mtDNA in aged mammals, interpreting it as a hallmark of age-related oxidative damage. In this study, we hypothesized that the occurrence of AH>GH substitutions may depend on the level of aerobic metabolism, which can be inferred from an organisms body temperature. To test this hypothesis, we used body temperature in endotherms and environmental temperature in ectotherms as proxies for metabolic rate and reconstructed mtDNA mutational spectra for 1350 vertebrate species. Our results showed that temperature was associated with increased rates of AH>GH and asymmetry of AH>GH in different species of ray-finned fishes and within geographically distinct clades of European anchovy. Analysis of nucleotide composition in the most neutral synonymous sites of fishes revealed that warm-water species were expectedly more A-poor and G-rich compared to cold-water species. Finally, we extended our analyses to all vertebrates and observed higher AH>GH and increased asymmetry of AH>GH in warm-blooded (mammals and birds) compared to cold-blooded (Actinopterygii, amphibia, reptilia) vertebrate classes. Overall, our findings suggest that temperature, through its influence on metabolism and oxidative damage, shapes the mutational properties and nucleotide content of the mtDNA in all vertebrates.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mikhailova, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shamanskiy, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mihailova, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ushakova, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tretiakov, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oreshkov, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knorre, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polishchuk, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawless, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazunin, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunz, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tanaka, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleischmann, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aidlen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makeev, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuptsov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fellay, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunbin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.25.221184</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A mitochondrial mutational signature of temperature and longevity in ectothermic and endothermic vertebrates.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.26.222190v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Regular Tai Chi Practice Is Associated with Improved Memory as well as Structural and Functional Integrity of the Hippocampal Formation in the Elderly 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.26.222190v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveThe current study aimed at determining effects of Tai Chi as an example of a combined motor-cognitive exercise relative to regular walking as an example of an exercise without cognitive demands on cognitive functioning and the functional and structural integrity of the brain in the elderly.

MethodsHealthy elderly women with at least 6 years of regular Tai Chi or brisk walking exercise were recruited and underwent cognitive assessment via the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and brain structural and resting state functional MRI assessments.

ResultsEpisodic memory in Tai Chi group was superior to that of the walking group; (2) higher gray matter density in inferior and medial temporal regions, including the hippocampal formation; (3) higher ReHo in temporal regions, specifically the fusiform gyrus and hippocampal formation (4) significant partial correlations were found between the gray matter density of the left hippocampus and episodic memory in the whole sample (5) significant partial correlations were observed between the ReHo in left hippocampus, left parahippocampal, left fusiform and delayed memory task was observed among all subjects.

ConclusionThe present study suggest that long-term Tai Chi practice may improve memory performance via remodeling structure and the function of the hippocampal formation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yue, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herold, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mei, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kong, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perrey, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muller, N. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kramer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Becker, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.26.222190</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Regular Tai Chi Practice Is Associated with Improved Memory as well as Structural and Functional Integrity of the Hippocampal Formation in the Elderly]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.28.225938v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Crystal structure reveals the full Ras:Raf interface and advances mechanistic understanding of Raf activation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.28.225938v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The interaction between Ras and Raf-kinase through the Ras-binding (RBD) and cysteine-rich domains (CRD) of Raf is essential for signaling through the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, yet the molecular mechanism leading to Raf activation has remained elusive. We present the 2.8 [A] crystal structure of the HRas/CRaf-RBD_CRD complex showing the Ras/Raf interface as a continuous surface on Ras. In the Ras dimer, with helices roughly perpendicular to the membrane, the CRD is located between the two Ras protomers and far from the membrane, where its dynamic nature in the Ras binding pocket is expected to accommodate BRaf and CRaf heterodimers. Our structure and its analysis by MD simulations, combined with work in the literature, result in a molecular model in which Ras binding is involved in the release of Raf autoinhibition while the Ras/Raf complex dimerizes to promote a platform for signal amplification, with Raf-CRD poised to have direct and allosteric effects on both the Ras active site and the dimerization interface.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cookis, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mattos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.28.225938</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Crystal structure reveals the full Ras:Raf interface and advances mechanistic understanding of Raf activation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.30.229534v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
singlecellVR: interactive visualization of single-cell data in virtual reality 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.30.229534v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Single-cell assays have transformed our ability to model heterogeneity within cell populations. As these assays have advanced in their ability to measure various aspects of molecular processes in cells, computational methods to analyze and meaningfully visualize such data have required matched innovation. Independently, Virtual Reality (VR) has recently emerged as a powerful technology to dynamically explore complex data and shows promise for adaptation to challenges in single-cell data visualization. However, adopting VR for single-cell data visualization has thus far been hindered by expensive prerequisite hardware or advanced data preprocessing skills. To address current shortcomings, we present singlecellVR, a user-friendly web application for visualizing single-cell data, designed for cheap and easily available virtual reality hardware (e.g., Google Cardboard, [~]$10). singlecellVR can visualize data from a variety of sequencing-based technologies including transcriptomic, epigenomic, and proteomic data as well as combinations thereof. Analysis modalities supported include approaches to clustering as well as trajectory inference and visualization of dynamical changes discovered through modelling RNA velocity. We provide a companion software package, scvr to streamline data conversion from the most widely-adopted single-cell analysis tools as well as a growing database of pre-analyzed datasets to which users can contribute.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stein, D. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vinyard, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinello, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-07-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.07.30.229534</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[singlecellVR: interactive visualization of single-cell data in virtual reality]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-07-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.01.232470v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Control of aperture closure during reach-to-grasp movements in immersive haptic-free virtual reality 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.01.232470v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Virtual reality (VR) has garnered much interest as a training environment for motor skill acquisition, including for neurological rehabilitation of upper extremities. While the focus has been on gross upper limb motion, VR applications that involve reaching for, and interacting with, virtual objects are growing. The absence of true haptics in VR when it comes to hand-object interactions raises a fundamentally important question: can haptic-free immersive virtual environments (hf-VEs) support naturalistic coordination of reach-to-grasp movements? This issue has been grossly understudied, and yet is of significant importance in the development and application of VR across a number of sectors. In a previous study (Furmanek et al. 2019), we reported that reach-to-grasp movements are similarly coordinated in both the physical environment (PE) and hf-VE. The most noteworthy difference was that the closure phase--which begins at maximum aperture and lasts through the end of the movement--was longer in hf-VE than in PE, suggesting that different control laws might govern the initiation of closure between the two environments. To do so, we reanalyzed data from Furmanek et al. (2019), in which the participants reached to grasp three differently sized physical objects, and matching 3D virtual object renderings, placed at three different locations. Our analysis revealed two key findings pertaining to the initiation of closure in PE and hf-VE. First, the respective control laws governing the initiation of aperture closure in PE and hf-VE both included state estimates of transport velocity and acceleration, supporting a general unified control policy for implementing reach-to-grasp across physical and virtual environments. Second, aperture was less informative to the control law in hf-VE. We suggest that the latter was likely because transport velocity at closure onset and aperture at closure onset were less independent in hf-VE than in PE, ultimately resulting in aperture at closure onset having a weaker influence on the initiation of closure. In this way, the excess time and muscular effort needed to actively bring the fingers to a stop at the interface of a virtual object was factored into the control law governing the initiation of closure in hf-VE. Critically, this control law remained applicable, albeit with different weights in hf-VE, despite the absence of terminal haptic feedback and potential perceptual differences.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mangalam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yarossi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Furmanek, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tunik, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.01.232470</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Control of aperture closure during reach-to-grasp movements in immersive haptic-free virtual reality]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.03.234518v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Greater TMS-evoked frontoparietal effective connectivity is correlated with better cognitive performance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.03.234518v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Fronto-parietal activity has been related to fluid intelligence and flexible cognitive control. However, causal insights on this relation are lacking. We used real-time integration of MRI-guided TMS and EEG to characterize the spatial and temporal properties of signal propagation between these two regions and relate them to cognitive performance.

31 healthy adults (55 {+/-}6 years, 20 female) underwent TMS-EEG and a full cognitive assessment. Local and propagated current from 5 source space-reconstructed scouts ipsilateral to two stimulation sites (pre frontal cortex (PFC) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL)) was quantified in two-time windows (15-40ms and 40-80ms) and related to domain-general (global cognition) and domain-specific (memory, working memory, reasoning, flexibility, lexical access and visuo-spatial) cognitive functions.

TMS-evoked activity from stimulation of the PFC and the IPL resulted in local and distributed activity across frontoparietal regions. TMS-evoked activity in local regions was not correlated with cognitive functions. In response to TMS of the PFC, propagated current to the distal superior parietal scout in the first 15-40ms was significantly associated with global cognition ({beta} = 2.63, SE = .898, p = .008, R2 = .31). Similarly, following TMS of the IPL, propagation to the middle prefrontal gyrus scout (15-40ms) was significantly associated with global cognition ({beta} = 2.67, SE = 1.289, p = .025, R2 = .27). In an exploratory step, domain-specific correlations were seen in the PFC condition.

Locally evoked activity measured via source space reconstruction from TMS of two association hubs is not associated with cognitive functions. However, the propagation of the TMS pulse through frontoparietal connections is associated with overall cognitive ability. These associations are driven by a number of cognitive domains in the PFC stimulation condition.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Morris, T. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Redondo-Camos, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cattaneo, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Macia, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Solana_Sanchez, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Espana-Irla, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Delgado-Galen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alviarez-Schulze, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pachon Garcia, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santarnecchi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tadayon, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozdemir, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tormos-Munoz, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartres-Faz, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pascual-Leone, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shafi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.03.234518</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Greater TMS-evoked frontoparietal effective connectivity is correlated with better cognitive performance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.13.250142v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
msiPL: Non-linear Manifold and Peak Learning of Mass Spectrometry Imaging Data Using Artificial Neural Networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.13.250142v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is an emerging technology that holds potential for improving clinical diagnosis, biomarker discovery, metabolomics research and pharmaceutical applications. The large data size and high dimensional nature of MSI pose computational and memory complexities that hinder accurate identification of biologically-relevant molecular patterns. We propose msiPL, a robust and generic probabilistic generative model based on a fully-connected variational autoencoder for unsupervised analysis and peak learning of MSI data. The method can efficiently learn and visualize the underlying non-linear spectral manifold, reveal biologically-relevant clusters of tumor heterogeneity and identify underlying informative m/z peaks. The method provides a probabilistic parametric mapping to allow a trained model to rapidly analyze a new unseen MSI dataset in a few seconds. The computational model features a memory-efficient implementation using a minibatch processing strategy to enable the analyses of big MSI data (encompassing more than 1 million high-dimensional datapoints) with significantly less memory. We demonstrate the robustness and generic applicability of the application on MSI data of large size from different biological systems and acquired using different mass spectrometers at different centers, namely: 2D Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI) Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FT ICR) MSI data of human prostate cancer, 3D MALDI Time-of-Flight (TOF) MSI data of human oral squamous cell carcinoma, 3D Desorption Electrospray Ionization (DESI) Orbitrap MSI data of human colorectal adenocarcinoma, 3D MALDI TOF MSI data of mouse kidney, and 3D MALDI FT ICR MSI data of a patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse brain model of glioblastoma.

SignificanceMass spectrometry imaging (MSI) provides detailed molecular characterization of a tissue specimen while preserving spatial distributions. However, the complex nature of MSI data slows down the processing time and poses computational and memory challenges that hinder the analysis of multiple specimens required to extract biologically relevant patterns. Moreover, the subjectivity in the selection of parameters for conventional pre-processing approaches can lead to bias. Here, we present a generative probabilistic deep-learning model that can analyze and non-linearly visualize MSI data independent of the nature of the specimen and of the MSI platform. We demonstrate robustness of the method with application to different tissue types, and envision it as a new generation of rapid and robust analysis for mass spectrometry data.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Abdelmoula, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez, B. G.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Randall, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kapur, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sarkaria, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>White, F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agar, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wells, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agar, N. Y. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.13.250142</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[msiPL: Non-linear Manifold and Peak Learning of Mass Spectrometry Imaging Data Using Artificial Neural Networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.15.241349v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations on Protein Structures and Intraviral Protein-Protein Interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.15.241349v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Since 2019, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has infected ten millions of people across the globe, and massive mutations in virus genome have occurred during the rapid spread of this novel coronavirus. Variance in protein sequence might lead to change in protein structure and interaction, then further affect the viral physiological characteristics, which could bring tremendous influence on the pandemic. In this study, we investigated 18 non-synonymous mutations in SARS-CoV-2 genome which incidence rates were all [&ge;]1% as of July 15th, 2020, then modeled the mutated protein structures and compared them with the reference ones. The results showed that four types of mutations could cause dramatic changes in protein structures (RMSD [&ge;]5.0 [A]), which were Q57H and G251V in open reading frames 3a (ORF3a), S194L and R203K/G204R in nucleocapsid (N). Next, we found that these mutations could affect the binding affinity of intraviral protein interactions. In addition, the hot spots within these docking complexes were altered, among which the mutation Q57H was involved in both Orf3a-Orf8 and Orf3a-S protein interactions. Besides, these mutations were widely distributed all over the world, and their occurrences fluctuated as time went on. Notably, the incidences of R203K/G204R in N and Q57H in Orf3a were both over 50% in some countries. Overall, our findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 mutations can change viral protein structure, binding affinity and hot spots of the interface, thereby may have impacts on SARS-CoV-2 transmission, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tian, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.15.241349</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations on Protein Structures and Intraviral Protein-Protein Interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.19.258053v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multifractality in postural sway supports quiet eye training in aiming tasks: A study of golf putting 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.19.258053v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The  quiet eye (QE) approach to visually-guided aiming behavior invests fully in perceptual informations potential to organize coordinated action. Sports psychologists refer to QE as the stillness of the eyes during aiming tasks and increasingly into self- and externally-paced tasks. Amidst the  noisy fluctuations of the athletes body, quiet eyes might leave fewer saccadic interruptions to the coupling between postural sway and optic flow. Postural sway exhibits fluctuations whose multifractal structure serves as a robust predictor of visual and haptic perceptual responses. Postural sway generates optic flow centered on an individuals eye height. We predicted that perturbing the eye height by attaching wooden blocks below the feet would perturb the putting more so in QE-trained participants than participants trained technically. We also predicted that QEs efficacy and responses to perturbation would depend on multifractality in postural sway. Specifically, we predicted that less multifractality would predict more adaptive responses to the perturbation and higher putting accuracy. Results showed that lower multifractality led to more accurate putts, and the perturbation of eye height led to less accurate putts, particularly for QE-trained participants. Models of radial error (i.e., the distance between the balls final position and the hole) indicated that lower estimates of multifractality due to nonlinearity coincided with a more adaptive response to the perturbation. These results suggest that reduced multifractality may act in a context-sensitive manner to restrain motoric degrees of freedom to achieve the task goal.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jacobson, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berleman-Paul, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mangalam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelty-Stephen, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.19.258053</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multifractality in postural sway supports quiet eye training in aiming tasks: A study of golf putting]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.20.260307v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A simple, high-throughput method of protein and label removal from extracellular vesicle samples 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.20.260307v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Evidence continues to increase of the clinical utility extracellular vesicles (EVs) can provide as translational biomarkers. While a wide variety of EV isolation and purification methods have been implemented, few techniques are high-throughput and scalable for removing excess fluorescent reagents (e.g. dyes, antibodies). EVs are too small to be recovered from routine cell-processing procedures, such as filtration or centrifugation. The lack of suitable methods for removing unbound labels, especially in optical assays, is a major roadblock to accurate EV phenotyping and utilization of EV assays in a translational or clinical setting. Therefore, we developed a method for using a multi-modal resin, referred to as EV-Clean, to remove unbound labels from EV samples, and we demonstrate improvement in flow cytometric EV analysis with the use of this EV-Clean method.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Welsh, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Killingswroth, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kepley, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Traynor, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKinnon, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savage, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Appel, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aldape, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camphausen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berzofsky, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ivanov, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghiran, I. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.20.260307</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A simple, high-throughput method of protein and label removal from extracellular vesicle samples]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.24.264994v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Optimizing accuracy and depth of protein quantification in experiments using isobaric carriers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.24.264994v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The isobaric carrier approach, which combines small isobarically-labeled samples with a larger isobarically-labeled carrier sample, is finding diverse applications in ultrasensitive mass-spectrometry analysis of very small samples, such as single cells. To enhance the growing use of isobaric carriers, we characterized the trade-offs of using isobaric carriers in controlled experiments with complex human proteomes. The data indicate that isobaric carriers directly enhances peptide sequence identification without simultaneously increasing the number of protein copies sampled from small samples. The results also indicate strategies for optimizing the amount of isobaric carrier and analytical parameters, such as ion accumulation time, for different priorities such as improved quantification or increased number of identified proteins. Balancing these trade-offs enables adapting isobaric carrier experiments to different applications, such as quantifying proteins from limited biopsies or organoids, building single-cell atlases, or modeling protein networks in single cells. In all cases, the reliability of protein quantification should be estimated and incorporated in all subsequent analysis. We expect that these guidelines will aid in explicit incorporation of the characterized trade-offs in experimental designs and transparent error propagation in data analysis.

O_FIG_DISPLAY_L [Figure 1] M_FIG_DISPLAY C_FIG_DISPLAY
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.24.264994</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Optimizing accuracy and depth of protein quantification in experiments using isobaric carriers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.25.265983v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PFRED: A computational platform for siRNA and antisense oligonucleotides design. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.25.265983v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PFRED a software application for the design, analysis, and visualization of antisense oligonucleotides and siRNA is described. The software provides an intuitive user-interface for scientists to design a library of siRNA or antisense oligonucleotides that target a specific gene of interest. Moreover, the tool facilitates the incorporation of various design criteria that have been shown to be important for stability and potency. PFRED has been made available as an open-source project so the code can be easily modified to address the future needs of the oligonucleotide research community. A compiled version is available for downloading at https://github.com/pfred/pfred-gui/releases as a java Jar file. The source code and the links for downloading the precompiled version can be found at https://github.com/pfred.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sciabola, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xi, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cruz, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawrence, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rotstein, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caffrey, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stanton, R. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.25.265983</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PFRED: A computational platform for siRNA and antisense oligonucleotides design.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.27.267609v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Gene expression profiles of inflammatory breast cancer reveal high heterogeneity across the epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal spectrum 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.27.267609v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a highly aggressive breast cancer that metastasizes largely via tumor emboli, and has a 5-year survival rate of less than 30%. No unique genomic signature has yet been identified for IBC nor has any specific molecular therapeutic been developed to manage the disease. Thus, identifying gene expression signatures specific to IBC remains crucial. Here, we compare various gene lists that have been proposed as molecular footprints of IBC using different clinical samples as training and validation sets and using independent training algorithms, and determine their accuracy in identifying IBC samples in three independent datasets. We show that these gene lists have little to no mutual overlap, and have limited predictive accuracy in identifying IBC samples. Despite this inconsistency, single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) of IBC samples correlate with their position on the epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal spectrum. This positioning, together with ssGSEA scores, improves the accuracy of IBC identification across the three independent datasets. Finally, we observed that IBC samples robustly displayed a higher coefficient of variation in terms of EMT scores, as compared to non-IBC samples. Pending verification that this patient-to-patient variability extends to intratumor heterogeneity within a single patient, these results suggest that higher heterogeneity along the epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal spectrum can be regarded to be a hallmark of IBC and a possibly useful biomarker.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chakraborty, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woodward, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.27.267609</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Gene expression profiles of inflammatory breast cancer reveal high heterogeneity across the epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal spectrum]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.27.270173v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Predicting the Health Impact of Dietary Polyphenols Using a Network Medicine Framework 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.27.270173v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Polyphenols, natural products present in plant-based foods, play a protective role against several complex diseases through their antioxidant activity and by diverse molecular mechanisms. Here we developed a network medicine framework to uncover the mechanistic roles of polyphenols on health by considering the molecular interactions between polyphenol protein targets and proteins associated with diseases. We find that the protein targets of polyphenols cluster in specific neighborhoods of the human interactome, whose network proximity to disease proteins is predictive of the molecules known therapeutic effects. The methodology recovers known associations, such as the effect of epigallocatechin 3-O-gallate on type 2 diabetes, and predicts that rosmarinic acid (RA) has a direct impact on platelet function, representing a novel mechanism through which it could affect cardiovascular health. We experimentally confirm that RA inhibits platelet aggregation and alpha granule secretion through inhibition of protein tyrosine phosphorylation, offering direct support for the predicted molecular mechanism. Our framework represents a starting point for mechanistic interpretation of the health effects underlying food-related compounds, allowing us to integrate into a predictive framework knowledge on food metabolism, bioavailability, and drug interaction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>do Valle, I. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roweth, H. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malloy, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moco, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barron, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Battinelli, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loscalzo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.27.270173</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Predicting the Health Impact of Dietary Polyphenols Using a Network Medicine Framework]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.29.270983v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
De novo genome assembly of the Tobacco Hornworm moth (Manduca sexta) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.29.270983v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, is a lepidopteran insect that is used extensively as a model system for studying insect biology, development, neuroscience and immunity. However, current studies rely on the highly fragmented reference genome Msex_1.0, which was created using now-outdated technologies and is hindered by a variety of deficiencies and inaccuracies. We present the new reference genome for M. sexta, JHU_Msex_v1.0, applying a combination of modern technologies in a de novo assembly to increase continuity, accuracy, and completeness. The assembly is 470 Mb and is ~20x more continuous than the original assembly, with scaffold N50 >14 Mb. We annotated the assembly by lifting over existing annotations and supplementing with additional supporting RNA-based data for a total of 25,256 genes. The new reference assembly is accessible in annotated form for public use. We demonstrate that improved continuity of the M. sexta genome improves resequencing studies and benefits future research on M. sexta as a model organism.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gershman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romer, T. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Razaghi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, W. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Timp, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.29.270983</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[De novo genome assembly of the Tobacco Hornworm moth (Manduca sexta)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.29.272831v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Deep learning and alignment of spatially-resolved whole transcriptomes of single cells in the mouse brain with Tangram 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.29.272831v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Charting a biological atlas of an organ, such as the brain, requires us to spatially-resolve whole transcriptomes of single cells, and to relate such cellular features to the histological and anatomical scales. Single-cell and single-nucleus RNA-Seq (sc/snRNA-seq) can map cells comprehensively5,6, but relating those to their histological and anatomical positions in the context of an organs common coordinate framework remains a major challenge and barrier to the construction of a cell atlas7-10. Conversely, Spatial Transcriptomics allows for in-situ measurements11-13 at the histological level, but at lower spatial resolution and with limited sensitivity. Targeted in situ technologies1-3 solve both issues, but are limited in gene throughput which impedes profiling of the entire transcriptome. Finally, as samples are collected for profiling, their registration to anatomical atlases often require human supervision, which is a major obstacle to build pipelines at scale. Here, we demonstrate spatial mapping of cells, histology, and anatomy in the somatomotor area and the visual area of the healthy adult mouse brain. We devise Tangram, a method that aligns snRNA-seq data to various forms of spatial data collected from the same brain region, including MERFISH1, STARmap2, smFISH3, and Spatial Transcriptomics4 (Visium), as well as histological images and public atlases. Tangram can map any type of sc/snRNA-seq data, including multi-modal data such as SHARE-seq data5, which we used to reveal spatial patterns of chromatin accessibility. We equipped Tangram with a deep learning computer vision pipeline, which allows for automatic identification of anatomical annotations on histological images of mouse brain. By doing so, Tangram reconstructs a genome-wide, anatomically-integrated, spatial map of the visual and somatomotor area with [~]30,000 genes at single-cell resolution, revealing spatial gene expression and chromatin accessibility patterning beyond current limitation of in-situ technologies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Biancalani, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scalia, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buffoni, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Avasthi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanger, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tokcan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vanderburg, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Segerstolpe, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Avraham-Davidi, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vickovic, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nitzan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buenrostro, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, N. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fanelli, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhuang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Macosko, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Regev, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-08-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.08.29.272831</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Deep learning and alignment of spatially-resolved whole transcriptomes of single cells in the mouse brain with Tangram]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-08-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.01.277525v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural insights into mRNA reading frame regulation by tRNA modification and slippery codon-anticodon pairing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.01.277525v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Modifications in the tRNA anticodon, adjacent to the three-nucleotide anticodon, influence translation fidelity by stabilizing the tRNA to allow for accurate reading of the mRNA genetic code. One example is the N1-methylguaonosine modification at guanine nucleotide 37 (m1G37) located in the anticodon loop, immediately adjacent to the anticodon nucleotides 34-36. The absence of m1G37 in tRNAPro causes +1 frameshifting on polynucleotide, slippery codons. Here, we report structures of the bacterial ribosome containing tRNAPro bound to either cognate or slippery codons to determine how the m1G37 modification prevents mRNA frameshifting. The structures reveal that certain codon-anticodon contexts and m1G37 destabilize interactions of tRNAPro with the peptidyl site, causing large conformational changes typically only seen during EF-G mediated translocation of the mRNA-tRNA pairs. These studies provide molecular insights into how m1G37 stabilizes the interactions of tRNAPro with the ribosome and the influence of slippery codons on the mRNA reading frame.

IMPACT STATEMENTChemical modifications near the tRNA anticodon and specific mRNA-tRNA pairs combine to control the ribosomal three-nucleotide mRNA reading frame, essential for the sequential addition of amino acids into polypeptide chains.

Data depositionCrystallography, atomic coordinates, and structure factors have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank, www.pdb.org (PDB codes 6NTA, 6NSH, 6NUO, 6NWY, 6O3M, 6OSI)
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hoffer, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maehigashi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dunham, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.01.277525</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural insights into mRNA reading frame regulation by tRNA modification and slippery codon-anticodon pairing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.03.281709v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Time scales of mixing in an imperforate scleractinian coelenteron 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.03.281709v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Coelentera are the largest components by volume in the gastrovascular system connecting polyps in a scleractinian colony. Thus to understand colony connectivity which is predicted to affect corals response to environmental change, we must first describe the dynamics inside these gastric cavities of individual polyps. We determined key time scales of mixing in coelentera by using microelectrodes to measure oxygen concentration after a light-to-dark transition in three polyps each of three colonies of Montastraea cavernosa in the laboratory. The gastrovascular system was modeled as an electrical network where voltage represents oxygen concentration, current represents oxygen flux, capacitors represent volume compartments, and resistors represent impedance to oxygen flux. The time constant of mixing, defined as the time needed for the system to disperse 63.2% of the fluid in the coelenteron, was determined from the oxygen dynamics in the coelenteron as modeled by a resistor-capacitor network. Time constants were on the order of three minutes and oxygen dynamics were well fit by the model prediction. However, as polyps depleted oxygen, we observed small magnitude (~ 0.1 ppm), high-frequency fluctuations in oxygen concentration. A power spectral density analysis identified two time scales of high-frequency mixing in the coelenteron. The greatest variance occurred at a period of 48.3 {+/-} 2.8 seconds, with a secondary peak seen at 35.9 {+/-} 2.3 seconds. The microenvironment within polyps of M. cavernosa can respond as fast or faster than their external environment can fluctuate, thus scleractinian polyps have the capacity to mediate their response to changing environmental conditions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Williams, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patterson, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.03.281709</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Time scales of mixing in an imperforate scleractinian coelenteron]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.09.289454v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Natural sensory context drives diverse brain-wide activity during C. elegans mating 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.09.289454v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Natural goal-directed behaviors often involve complex sequences of many stimulus-triggered components. Understanding how brain circuits organize such behaviors requires mapping the interactions between an animal, its environment, and its nervous system. Here, we use continuous brain-wide neuronal imaging to study the full performance of mating by the C. elegans male. We show that as each mating unfolds in its own sequence of component behaviors, the brain operates similarly between instances of each component, but distinctly between different components. When the full sensory and behavioral context is taken into account, unique roles emerge for each neuron. Functional correlations between neurons are not fixed, but change with behavioral dynamics. From the contribution of individual neurons to circuits, our study shows how diverse brain-wide dynamics emerge from the integration of sensory perception and motor actions within their natural context.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Susoy, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hung, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Witvliet, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitener, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graham, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samuel, A. D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.09.289454</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Natural sensory context drives diverse brain-wide activity during C. elegans mating]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.09.290395v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Improved Prediction of Smoking Status via Isoform-Aware RNA-seq Deep Learning Models 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.09.290395v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Most predictive models based on gene expression data do not leverage information related to gene splicing, despite the fact that splicing is a fundamental feature of eukaryotic gene expression. Cigarette smoking is an important environmental risk factor for many diseases, and it has profound effects on gene expression. Using smoking status as a prediction target, we developed deep neural network predictive models using gene, exon, and isoform level quantifications from RNA sequencing data in over 2,000 subjects in the COPDGene Study. We observed that models using exon and isoform quantifications clearly outperformed gene-level models when using data from 5 genes from a previously published five gene prediction model. Whereas the test set performance of the previously published model was 0.82 in the original publication, our exon-based models including an exon-to-isoform mapping layer achieved a test set AUC of 0.88 using data from the same 5 genes and an AUC of 0.94 using a larger set of exon quantifications. Isoform variability is an important source of latent information in RNA-seq data that can be used to improve clinical prediction models.

Author summaryPredictive models based on gene expression are already a part of medical decision making for selected situations such as early breast cancer treatment. Most of these models are based on measures that do not capture critical aspects of gene splicing, but with RNA sequencing it is possible to capture some of these aspects of alternative splicing and use them to improve clinical predictions. Building on previous models to predict cigarette smoking status, we show that measures of alternative splicing significantly improve the accuracy of these predictive models.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Masoomi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boueiz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cho, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hersh, C. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silverman, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dy, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castaldi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.09.290395</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Improved Prediction of Smoking Status via Isoform-Aware RNA-seq Deep Learning Models]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.10.291344v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Proteomics of autophagy deficient macrophages reveals enhanced antimicrobial immunity via the oxidative stress response 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.10.291344v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Defective autophagy is associated with chronic inflammation. Loss-of-function of the core autophagy gene Atg16l1 increases risk for Crohns disease by enhancing innate immunity in macrophages. However, autophagy also mediates clearance of intracellular pathogens. These divergent observations prompted a re-evaluation of ATG16L1 in antimicrobial immunity. In this study, we found that loss of Atg16l1 in macrophages enhanced the killing of virulent Shigella flexneri (S.flexneri), an enteric bacterium that resides within the cytosol by escaping all membrane-bound compartments. Quantitative multiplexed proteomics revealed that ATG16L1 deficiency significantly upregulated proteins involved in the glutathione-mediated antioxidant response to compensate for elevated oxidative stress, which also promoted S.flexneri killing. Consistently, myeloid cell-specific deletion of Atg16l1 accelerated bacterial clearance in vivo. Finally, pharmacological modulation of oxidative stress by suppression of cysteine import conferred enhanced microbicidal properties to wild type macrophages. These findings demonstrate that control of oxidative stress by ATG16L1 regulates antimicrobial immunity against intracellular pathogens.

Impact statementMaculins et al utilize multiplexed mass spectrometry to show that loss of the autophagy gene Atg16l1 in macrophages enhances antimicrobial immunity against intracellular pathogens via the oxidative stress response.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maculins, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verschueren, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinkle, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chalouni, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katakam, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunz, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erickson, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsai, T.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vitek, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reichelt, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rohde, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dikic, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirkpatrick, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murthy, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.10.291344</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Proteomics of autophagy deficient macrophages reveals enhanced antimicrobial immunity via the oxidative stress response]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.11.291534v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A non-canonical EZH2 function sensitizes solid tumors to genotoxic stress 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.11.291534v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Drugs that block the activity of the methyltransferase EZH2 are in clinical development for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphomas harboring gain-of-function EZH2 mutations that enhance its polycomb repressive function. In contrast, in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) we have previously reported that EZH2 plays a non-canonical role as a transcriptional activator. In this setting, we now show that EZH2 inhibitors can also block the non-canonical activity of EZH2 and inhibit the growth of CRPC cells. Gene expression and epigenomic profiling of cells treated with EZH2 inhibitors demonstrated that rather than de-repressing tumor suppressor genes silenced by PRC2, EZH2 inhibitors downregulate a set of DNA repair genes that are directly regulated by EZH2. In addition, genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9-mediated loss-of-function screens in the presence of EZH2 inhibitors identified these DNA repair genes to underlie the growth-inhibitory function of these compounds. Interrogation of public data from diverse solid tumor types expressing wild-type EZH2 showed that expression of DNA damage repair genes is significantly correlated with cellular sensitivity to EZH2 inhibitors. Consistent with these findings, treatment of CRPC cells with EZH2 inhibitors dramatically enhanced their sensitivity to genotoxic stress. These studies reveal a previously unappreciated mechanism of action of EZH2 inhibitors and provide a mechanistic basis for potential new combination cancer therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>LIAO, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, C.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feit, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xue, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mei, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pierre, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duarte, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradner, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polyak, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kantoff, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Long, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balk, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, S. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.11.291534</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A non-canonical EZH2 function sensitizes solid tumors to genotoxic stress]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.14.297325v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Assessing and Predicting Efficacy of Dance Intervention for Parkinson's Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.14.297325v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Parkinsons disease (PD) is associated with a loss of internal cueing systems, affecting rhythmic motor tasks such as walking and speech production. Music and dance encourage spontaneous rhythmic coupling between sensory and motor systems; this has inspired the development of dance programs for PD. Here we assessed the therapeutic outcome and some underlying cognitive mechanisms of dance classes for PD, as measured by neuropsychological assessments of disease severity as well as quantitative assessments of rhythmic ability and sensorimotor experience. We assessed prior music and dance experience, beat perception (Beat Alignment Test), sensorimotor coupling (tapping to high- and low-groove songs), and disease severity (Unified Parkinsons Disease Rating Scale in PD individuals) before and after four months of weekly dance classes. PD individuals performed better on UPDRS after four months of weekly dance classes, suggesting efficacy of dance intervention. Greater post-intervention improvements in UPDRS were associated with the presence of prior dance experience and with more accurate sensorimotor coupling. Prior dance experience was additionally associated with enhanced sensorimotor coupling during tapping to both high-groove and low-groove songs. These results show that dance classes for PD improve both qualitative and quantitative assessments of disease symptoms. The association between these improvements and dance experience suggests that rhythmic motor training, a mechanism underlying dance training, impacts improvements in parkinsonian symptoms following a dance intervention.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Krotinger, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.14.297325</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Assessing and Predicting Efficacy of Dance Intervention for Parkinson's Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.15.299016v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Essential gene analysis in Acinetobacter baumannii by high-density transposon mutagenesis and CRISPR interference 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.15.299016v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acinetobacter baumannii is a poorly understood bacterium capable of life-threatening infections in hospitals. Few antibiotics remain effective against this highly resistant pathogen. Developing rationally-designed antimicrobials that can target A. baumannii requires improved knowledge of the proteins that carry out essential processes allowing growth of the organism. Unfortunately, studying essential genes has been challenging using traditional techniques, which usually require time-consuming recombination-based genetic manipulations. Here, we performed saturating mutagenesis with dual transposon systems to identify essential genes in A. baumannii and we developed a CRISPR-interference (CRISPRi) system for facile analysis of these genes. We show that the CRISPRi system enables efficient transcriptional silencing in A. baumannii. Using these tools, we confirmed the essentiality of the novel cell division protein AdvA and discovered a previously uncharacterized AraC-family transcription factor (ACX60_RS03245) that is necessary for growth. In addition, we show that capsule biosynthesis is a conditionally essential process, with mutations in late-acting steps causing toxicity in strain ATCC 17978 that can be bypassed by blocking early-acting steps or activating the BfmRS stress response. These results open new avenues for analysis of essential pathways in A. baumannii.

ImportanceNew approaches are urgently needed to control A. baumannii, one of the most drug resistant pathogens known. To facilitate the development of novel targets that allow inhibition of the pathogen, we performed a large-scale identification of genes whose products the bacterium needs for growth. We also developed a CRISPR-based gene knockdown tool that operates efficiently in A. baumannii, allowing rapid analysis of these essential genes. We used these methods to define multiple processes vital to the bacterium, including a previously uncharacterized gene-regulatory factor and export of a protective polymeric capsule. These tools will enhance our ability to investigate processes critical for the essential biology of this challenging hospital-acquired pathogen.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bai, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farinha, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, A. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Syal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vargas-Cuebas, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Surujon, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isberg, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Opijnen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geisinger, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.15.299016</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Essential gene analysis in Acinetobacter baumannii by high-density transposon mutagenesis and CRISPR interference]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.22.308973v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Innervated adrenomedullary microphysiological system to model prenatal nicotine and opioid exposure 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.22.308973v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The transition to extrauterine life results in a critical surge of catecholamines necessary for increased cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic activity. The mechanisms mediating adrenomedullary catecholamine release are poorly understood, given the sympathetic adrenomedullary control systems functional immaturity. Important mechanistic insight is provided by newborns delivered by cesarean section or subjected to prenatal nicotine or opioid exposure, demonstrating the impaired release of adrenomedullary catecholamines. To investigate mechanisms regulating adrenomedullary innervation, we developed compartmentalized 3D microphysiological systems (MPS) by exploiting the meniscus pinning effect via GelPins, capillary pressure barriers between cell-laden hydrogels. The MPS comprises discrete 3D cultures of adrenal chromaffin cells and preganglionic sympathetic neurons within a contiguous bioengineered microtissue. Using this model, we demonstrate that adrenal chromaffin innervation plays a critical role in hypoxia-medicated catecholamine release. Furthermore, opioids and nicotine were shown to affect adrenal chromaffin cell response to a reduced oxygen environment, but neurogenic control mechanisms remained intact. GelPin containing MPS represent an inexpensive and highly adaptable approach to study innervated organ systems and improve drug screening platforms by providing innervated microenvironments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Soucy, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burchett, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brady, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breault, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.22.308973</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Innervated adrenomedullary microphysiological system to model prenatal nicotine and opioid exposure]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.24.311589v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Robust Self-Regeneratable Stiff Living Materials 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.24.311589v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Living systems have not only the exemplary capability to fabricate materials (e.g. wood, bone) under ambient conditions but they also consist of living cells that imbue them with properties like growth and self-regeneration. Like a seed that can grow into a sturdy living wood, we wondered: can living cells alone serve as the primary building block to fabricate stiff materials? Here we report the fabrication of stiff living materials (SLMs) produced entirely from microbial cells, without the incorporation of any structural biopolymers (e.g. cellulose, chitin, collagen) or biominerals (e.g. hydroxyapatite, calcium carbonate) that are known to impart stiffness to biological materials. Remarkably, SLMs are also lightweight, strong, resistant to organic solvents and can self-regenerate. This living materials technology can serve as a powerful biomanufacturing platform to design and develop sustainable structural materials, biosensors, self-regulators, self-healing and environment-responsive smart materials.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Manjula-Basavanna, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duraj-Thatte, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.24.311589</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Robust Self-Regeneratable Stiff Living Materials]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.24.312199v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Insights into the diversity and survival strategies of soil bacterial isolates from the Atacama Desert 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.24.312199v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Atacama Desert, the driest and oldest desert in the world, is a hostile environment for life. Despite the inhospitable conditions, bacterial sequences detected in this location suggest rich bacterial life. This study tested the idea that certain bacteria would thrive in this location and that some of them could be cultivated permitting further characterization. Environmental surface soil samples from 1-5 cm deep were collected from 18 diverse locations within the Atacama Desert. To assess the bacterial taxa, diversity, and abundance, Illumina 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed directly on soil samples. Bacteria were also cultured from the samples. We have a collection of 74 unique bacterial isolates after cultivation and confirmation by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Pigmentation, biofilm formation, antibiotic production against Escherichia coli MG1655 and Staphylococcus aureus HG003, and antibiotic resistance were assessed on these isolates. We found that approximately a third of the colonies produced pigments, 80% of isolates formed biofilms, many isolates had antibiotic activity against E. coli and/or S. aureus, and many were resistant to commercial antibiotics. The functional characterization of these isolates gives us insight into the adaptive bacterial strategies in harsh environments and enables us to learn about their possible use in agriculture, healthcare, or biotechnology.

Originality-Significant StatementThis study provides the first microbial diversity analysis from Atacama Desert soil, presents the cultivation and isolation of 74 unique bacterial isolates, many of which may be novel genera and species, and explores pigment production, antibiotic production and resistance, and unique biofilm development as bacterial survival strategies for living within extreme environments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Reverdy, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hathaway, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jha, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sullivan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michaels, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diaz Mac-Adoo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riquelme, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godoy, V. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-09-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.09.24.312199</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Insights into the diversity and survival strategies of soil bacterial isolates from the Atacama Desert]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-09-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.01.322982v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A hybrid mesh and voxel based Monte Carlo algorithm for accurate and efficient photon transport modeling in complex bio-tissues 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.01.322982v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Over the past decade, an increasing body of evidence has suggested that threedimensional (3-D) Monte Carlo (MC) light transport simulations are affected by the inherent limitations and errors of voxel-based domain boundaries. In this work, we specifically address this challenge using a hybrid MC algorithm, namely split-voxel MC or SVMC, that combines both mesh and voxel domain information to greatly improve MC simulation accuracy while remaining highly flexible and efficient in parallel hardware, such as graphics processing units (GPU). We achieve this by applying a marching-cubes algorithm to a pre-segmented domain to extract and encode sub-voxel information of curved surfaces, which is then used to inform ray-tracing computation within boundary voxels. This preservation of curved boundaries in a voxel data structure demonstrates significantly improved accuracy in several benchmarks, including a human brain atlas. The accuracy of the SVMC algorithm is comparable to that of mesh-based MC (MMC), but runs 2x-6x faster and requires only a lightweight preprocessing step. The proposed algorithm has been implemented in our open-source software and is freely available at http://mcx.space.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.01.322982</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A hybrid mesh and voxel based Monte Carlo algorithm for accurate and efficient photon transport modeling in complex bio-tissues]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.08.329805v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Oxygen-generating cryogels restore T cell-mediated cytotoxicity in hypoxic tumors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.08.329805v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Solid tumors are protected from antitumor immune responses due to their hypoxic microenvironments. Weakening hypoxia-driven immunosuppression by hyperoxic breathing of 60% oxygen has shown to be effective in unleashing antitumor immune cells against solid tumors. However, efficacy of systemic oxygenation is limited against solid tumors outside of lungs. Therefore, it is essential to develop targeted oxygenation alternatives to weaken tumor hypoxia as novel approaches to cancer immunotherapies. Herein, we report on injectable oxygen-generating cryogels (O2-cryogels) to reverse tumor-induced hypoxia. These macroporous biomaterials were designed to locally deliver oxygen, inhibit the expression of hypoxia-inducible genes in hypoxic melanoma cells, and reduce the accumulation of immunosuppressive extracellular adenosine. O2-cryogels enhance T cell-mediated secretion of cytotoxic proteins, restoring the killing ability of tumor-specific CTLs, both in vitro and in vivo. In summary, O2-cryogels provide a unique and safe platform to supply oxygen as a co-adjuvant in hypoxic tumors and improve cancer immunotherapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Colombani, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eggermont, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatfield, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rezaeeyazdi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Memic, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sitkovsky, M. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bencherif, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.08.329805</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Oxygen-generating cryogels restore T cell-mediated cytotoxicity in hypoxic tumors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.11.335232v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Light transport modeling in highly complex tissues using implicit mesh-based Monte Carlo algorithm 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.11.335232v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The mesh-based Monte Carlo (MMC) technique has grown tremendously since its initial publication nearly a decade ago. It is now recognized as one of the most accurate Monte Carlo (MC) methods, providing accurate reference solutions for the development of novel biophotonics techniques. In this work, we aim to further advance MMC to address a major challenge in biophotonics modeling, i.e. light transport within highly complex tissues, such as dense microvascular networks, porous media and multi-scale tissue structures. Although the current MMC framework is capable of simulating light propagation in such media given its generality, the run-time and memory usage grow rapidly with increasing media complexity and size. This greatly limits our capability to explore complex and multi-scale tissue structures. Here, we propose a highly efficient implicit mesh-based Monte Carlo (iMMC) method that incorporates both mesh- and shape-based tissue representations to create highly complex yet memory efficient light transport simulations. We demonstrate that iMMC is capable of providing accurate solutions for dense vessel networks and porous tissues while reducing memory usage by greater than a hundred- or even thousand-fold. In a sample network of microvasculature, the reduced shape complexity results in nearly 3x speed acceleration. The proposed algorithm is now available in our open-source MMC software at http://mcx.space/#mmc.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.11.335232</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Light transport modeling in highly complex tissues using implicit mesh-based Monte Carlo algorithm]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.20.327296v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Naegleria fowleri: protein structures to facilitate drug discovery for the deadly, pathogenic free-living amoeba 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.20.327296v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Naegleria fowleri is a pathogenic, thermophilic, free-living amoeba which causes primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). Penetrating the olfactory mucosa, the brain-eating amoeba travels along the olfactory nerves, burrowing through the cribriform plate to its destination: the brains frontal lobes. The amoeba thrives in warm, freshwater environments, with peak infection rates in the summer months and has a mortality rate of approximately 97%. A major contributor to the pathogens high mortality is the lack of sensitivity of N. fowleri to current drug therapies, even in the face of combination-drug therapy. To enable rational drug discovery and design efforts we have pursued protein production and crystallography-based structure determination efforts for likely drug targets from N. fowleri. N. fowleri genes were selected if they had homology to drug targets listed in Drug Bank or were nominated by primary investigators engaged in N. fowleri research. In 2017, 178 N. fowleri protein targets were queued to the Seattle Structural Genomics Center of Infectious Disease (SSGCID) pipeline, and to date 89 soluble recombinant proteins and 19 unique target structures have been produced. Many of the new protein structures are potential drug targets and contain structural differences compared to their human homologs, which could allow for the development of pathogen-specific inhibitors. Five of the structures were analyzed in more detail, and four of five show promise that selective inhibitors of the active site could be found. The 19 solved crystal structures build a foundation for future work in combating this devastating disease by encouraging further investigation to stimulate drug discovery for this neglected pathogen.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Barret, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tillery, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstein, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lassner, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osterhout, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tran`, N. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Craig, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chun, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dranow, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abendroth, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Delker, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davies, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayclin, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calhoun, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolejack, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Staker, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Subramanian, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phan, I. Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lorimer, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Myler, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edwards, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kyle, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rice, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morris, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leahy, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manetsch, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrett, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Voorhis, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.20.327296</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Naegleria fowleri: protein structures to facilitate drug discovery for the deadly, pathogenic free-living amoeba]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.21.349589v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multifractality distinguishes reactive from proactive cascades in postural control 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.21.349589v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Intermittency is a flexible control process entailing context-sensitive engagement with task constraints. The present work aims to situate the intermittency of dexterous behavior explicitly in multifractal modeling for non-Gaussian cascade processes. Multiscale probability density function (PDF) analysis of the center of pressure (CoP) fluctuations during quiet upright standing yields non-Gaussianity parameters lambda exhibiting task-sensitive curvilinear relationships with timescale. The present reanalysis aims for a finer-grained accounting of how non-Gaussian cascade processes might align with known, separable postural processes. It uses parallel decomposition of non-Gaussianity lambda-vs.-timescale and CoP. Orthogonal polynomials decompose lambda curvilinearity, and rambling-trembling analysis decomposes CoP into relatively more intentional rambling (displacement to new equilibrium points) and less intentional trembling sway (deviations around new equilibrium points). Modeling orthogonal polynomials of non-Gaussianitys lambda-vs.-timescale relationship allows us to differentiate linear from quadratic decay, each of which indicates scale-invariant and scale-dependent cascades, respectively. We tested whether scale-dependent and scale-invariant cascades serve different roles, that is, responding to destabilizing task demands and supporting the proactive movement to a new equilibrium point, respectively. We also tested whether these cascades appear more clearly in rambling rather than trembling sway. More generally, we test whether multifractal nonlinear correlations supports this capacity of postural control to this two-step differentiation: both into rambling vs. trembling, then into scale-dependent vs. scale-invariant cascades within rambling sway. The results supported these hypotheses. Thus, the present work aligns specific aspects of task setting with aspects of cascade dynamics and confirms multifractal foundations of the organism-task relationship.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kelty-Stephen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Furmanek, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mangalam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.21.349589</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multifractality distinguishes reactive from proactive cascades in postural control]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.23.350892v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Protein hyperacylation links mitochondrial dysfunction with nuclear organization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.23.350892v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cellular metabolism is linked to epigenetics, but the biophysical effects of metabolism on chromatin structure and implications for gene regulation remain largely unknown. Here, using a broken tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and disrupted electron transport chain (ETC) exemplified by succinate dehydrogenase subunit C (SDHC) deficiency, we investigated the effects of metabolism on chromatin architecture over multiple distance scales [nucleosomes ([~]102 bp), topologically-associated domains (TADs; [~]105 - 106 bp), and chromatin compartments (106 - 108 bp)]. Metabolically-driven hyperacylation of histones led to weakened nucleosome positioning in multiple types of chromatin, and we further demonstrate that lysine acylation directly destabilizes histone octamer-DNA interactions. Hyperacylation of cohesin subunits correlated with decreased mobility on interphase chromatin and increased TAD boundary strength, suggesting that cohesin is metabolically regulated. Erosion of chromatin compartment distinctions reveals metabolic regulation of chromatin liquid-liquid phase separation. The TCA cycle and ETC thus modulate chromatin structure over multiple distance scales.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smestad, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCauley, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amato, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiong, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sin, Y.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ellingson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al Khazal, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilbanks, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ordog, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouzina, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Locasale, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maher, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.23.350892</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Protein hyperacylation links mitochondrial dysfunction with nuclear organization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.23.352161v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A two-hit adversity model in developing rats reveals sex-specific impacts on prefrontal cortex structure and behavior 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.23.352161v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adversity early in life substantially impacts prefrontal cortex (PFC) development and vulnerability to later-life psychopathology. Importantly, repeated adverse experiences throughout childhood increase the risk for PFC-mediated behavioral deficits more commonly in women. Evidence from animal models points to effects of adversity on later-life neural and behavioral dysfunction; however, few studies have investigated the neurobiological underpinnings of sex-specific, long term consequences of multiple developmental stressors. We modeled early life adversity in rats via maternal separation (postnatal day (P)2-20) and juvenile social isolation (P21-35). Adult (P85) male and female rats were assessed for differences in the presence and structural integrity of PFC perineuronal nets (PNNs) enwrapping parvalbumin (PV)-expressing interneurons. PNNs are extracellular matrix structures formed during critical periods in postnatal development that play a key role in the plasticity of PV cells. Females - but not males - exposed to multiple hits of adversity demonstrated a reduction in PFC PV cells in adulthood. We also observed a sex-specific, potentiated reduction in PV+ PNN structural integrity. Moreover, correlations between neural disruption and hyperactivity/risk-assessment behavior were altered by adversity differently in males and females. These findings suggest a sex-specific impact of repeated adversity on neurostructural development and implicate PNNs as a contributor to associated behavioral dysfunction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gildawie, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ryll, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hexter, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peterzell, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valentine, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenhouse, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-10-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.10.23.352161</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A two-hit adversity model in developing rats reveals sex-specific impacts on prefrontal cortex structure and behavior]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-10-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.13.382192v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A computational neural model for mapping degenerate neural architectures 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.13.382192v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Degeneracy in biological systems refers to a many-to-one mapping between physical structures and their functional (including psychological) outcomes. Despite the ubiquity of the phenomenon, traditional analytical tools for modeling degeneracy in neuroscience are extremely limited. In this study, we generated synthetic datasets to describe three situations of degeneracy in fMRI data to demonstrate the limitations of the current univariate approach. We describe a novel computational approach for the analysis referred to as neural topographic factor analysis (NTFA). NTFA is designed to capture variations in neural activity across task conditions and participants. The advantage of this discovery-oriented approach is to reveal whether and how experimental trials and participants cluster into task conditions and participant groups. We applied NTFA on simulated data, revealing the appropriate degeneracy assumption in all three situations and demonstrating NTFAs utility in uncovering degeneracy. Lastly, we discussed the importance of testing degeneracy in fMRI and the implications of applying NTFA to do so.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khan, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sennesh, E. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dy, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ostadabbas, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van de Meent, J.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutchinson, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satpute, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.13.382192</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A computational neural model for mapping degenerate neural architectures]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.17.387605v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bell-shaped dose response for a system with no IFFLs 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.17.387605v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
It is well known that the presence of an incoherent feedforward loop (IFFL) in a network may give rise to a steady state non-monotonic dose response. This note shows that the converse implication does not hold. It gives an example of a three-dimensional system that has no IFFLs, yet its dose response is bell-shaped. It also studies under what conditions the result is true for two-dimensional systems, in the process recovering, in far more generality, a result given in the T-cell activation literature.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.17.387605</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bell-shaped dose response for a system with no IFFLs]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.18.387589v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modeling Side-Stream Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (S2EBPR) System Using Agent-based Model with Adaptive Maintenance, Decay and TCA Metabolism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.18.387589v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Side-stream enhanced biological phosphorus removal process (S2EBPR) has been demonstrated to improve performance stability and offer a suite of advantages compared to conventional EBPR design. Design and optimization of S2EBPR require modification of the current EBPR models that were not able to fully reflect the metabolic functions of and competition between the polyphosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs) and glycogen-accumulating organisms (GAOs) under extended anaerobic conditions as in the S2EBPR conditions. In this study, we proposed and validated an improved model (iEBPR) for simulating PAO and GAO competition that incorporated heterogeneity and versatility in PAO sequential polymer usage, staged maintenance-decay, and glycolysis-TCA pathway shifts. The iEBPR model was first calibrated against bulk batch testing experiment data, being proved to perform better than the previous EBPR model for predicting the soluble orthoP, ammonia, biomass glycogen, and PHA temporal profiles in a batch starvation testing under prolonged anaerobic conditions. We further validated the model with another independent set of batch anaerobic batch testing data that included high-resolution single-cell and specific population level intracellular polymer measurements enabled by the single-cell Raman micro-spectroscopy technique. The model accurately predicted the temporal changes in the intracellular polymers at cellular and population levels within PAOs and GAOs, and further confirmed the proposed mechanism of sequential polymer utilization, and polymer availability-dependent and staged maintenance-decay in PAOs. These results indicate that under extended anaerobic phases as in S2EBPR, the PAOs may gain competitive advantages over GAOs due to the possession of multiple intracellular polymers and the adaptive switching of the anaerobic metabolic pathways that consequently lead to the later and slower decay in PAOs than GAOs. The iEBPR model can be applied to facilitate and optimize the design and operations of S2EBPR for more reliable nutrient removal and recovery from wastewater.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tooker, N. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srinivasan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnard, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Russel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takacs, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bott, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dobrowski, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onnis-Hayden, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, A. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.18.387589</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modeling Side-Stream Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (S2EBPR) System Using Agent-based Model with Adaptive Maintenance, Decay and TCA Metabolism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.23.394965v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Hybrid Living Capsules Autonomously Produced by Engineered Bacteria 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.23.394965v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bacterial cellulose (BC) has excellent material properties and can be produced cheaply and sustainably through simple bacterial culture, but BC-producing bacteria lack the extensive genetic toolkits of model organisms such as Escherichia coli. Here, we describe a simple approach for producing highly programmable BC materials through incorporation of engineered E. coli. The acetic acid bacterium Gluconacetobacter hansenii was co-cultured with engineered E. coli in droplets of glucose-rich media to produce robust cellulose capsules, which were then colonized by the E. coli upon transfer to selective lysogeny broth media. We show that the encapsulated E. coli can produce engineered protein nanofibers within the cellulose matrix, yielding hybrid capsules capable of sequestering specific biomolecules from the environment and enzymatic catalysis. Furthermore, we produced capsules capable of altering their own bulk physical properties through enzyme-induced biomineralization. This novel system, based on autonomous biological fabrication, significantly expands the functionality of BC-based living materials.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Birnbaum, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manula-Basavanna, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-11-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.11.23.394965</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hybrid Living Capsules Autonomously Produced by Engineered Bacteria]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-11-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.02.408278v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ultra-high field (7T) functional magnetic resonance imaging in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.02.408278v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that results in a progressive loss of motor function and ultimately death. It is critical, yet also challenging, to develop non-invasive biomarkers to identify, localize, measure and/or track biological mechanisms implicated in ALS. Such biomarkers may also provide clues to identify potential molecular targets for future therapeutic trials. Herein we report on a pilot study involving twelve participants with ALS and nine age-matched healthy controls who underwent high-resolution resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging at an ultra-high field of 7 Tesla. A group-level whole-brain analysis revealed a disruption in long-range functional connectivity between the superior sensorimotor cortex (in the precentral gyrus) and bilateral cerebellar lobule VI. Post hoc analyses using atlas-derived left and right cerebellar lobule VI revealed decreased functional connectivity in ALS participants that predominantly mapped to bilateral postcentral and precentral gyri. Cerebellar lobule VI is a transition zone between anterior motor networks and posterior non-motor networks in the cerebellum, and is associated with a wide range of key functions including complex motor and cognitive processing tasks. Our observation of the involvement of cerebellar lobule VI adds to the growing number of studies implicating the cerebellum in ALS. Future avenues of scientific investigation should consider how high-resolution imaging at 7T may be leveraged to visualize differences in functional connectivity disturbances in various genotypes and phenotypes of ALS along the ALS-frontotemporal dementia spectrum.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Barry, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Babu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anteraper, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Triantafyllou, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keil, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rowe, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rangaprakash, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paganoni, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawson, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dheel, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cernasov, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ratai, E.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atassi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.02.408278</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ultra-high field (7T) functional magnetic resonance imaging in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.03.409581v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Confocal imaging capacity on a widefield microscope using a spatial light modulator 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.03.409581v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Confocal microscopes can reject out-of-focus and scattered light; however, widefield microscopes are far more common in biological laboratories due to their accessibility and lower cost. We report confocal imaging capacity on a widefield microscope by adding a spatial light modulator (SLM) and utilizing custom illumination and acquisition methods. We discuss our illumination strategy and compare several procedures for postprocessing the acquired image data. We assessed the performance of this system for rejecting out-of-focus light by comparing images taken using our widefield microscope, our SLM-enhanced setup, and a commercial confocal microscope. The optical sectioning capability, assessed on thin fluorescent film, was 0.85 {+/-} 0.04 m for our SLM-enhanced setup and 0.68 {+/-} 0.04 m for a confocal microscope, while a widefield microscope exhibited no sectioning capability. We demonstrate our setup by imaging the same set of neurons in C. elegans on widefield, SLM, and confocal microscopes. SLM enhancement greatly reduces background from the cell body, allowing visualization of dim fibers nearby. Our SLM-enhanced setup identified 93% of the dim neuronal fibers seen in confocal images while a widefield microscope only identified 48% of the same fibers. Our microscope add-on represents a very simple (2-component) and inexpensive (<$600) approach to enable widefield microscopes to optically section thick samples.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grooms, N. W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Civale, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.03.409581</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Confocal imaging capacity on a widefield microscope using a spatial light modulator]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.18.423486v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Machine Learning-based Biomarkers Identification and Validation from Toxicogenomics - Bridging to Regulatory Relevant Phenotypic Endpoints 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.18.423486v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
High-throughput in vitro assays and AOP-based approach is promising for the assessment of health and ecotoxicological risks from exposure to pollutants and their mixtures. However, one of the major challenges in realization and implementations of the Tox21 vision is the urgent need to establish quantitative link between in-vitro assay molecular endpoint and in-vivo phenotypic toxicity endpoint. Here, we demonstrated that, using time series toxicomics in-vitro assay along with machine learning-based feature selection (MRMR) and classification method (SVM), an "optimal" number of biomarkers with minimum redundancy can be identified for prediction of phenotypic endpoints with good accuracy. We included two case studies for in-vivo carcinogenicity and Ames genotoxicity prediction with 20 selected chemicals including model genotoxic chemicals and negative controls, respectively, using an in-vitro toxicogenomic assay that captures real-time proteomic response data of 38 GFP-fused proteins of S. cerevisiae strains covering biomarkers indicative of all known DNA damage and repair pathways in yeast. The results suggested that, employing the adverse outcome pathway (AOP) concept, molecular endpoints based on a relatively small number of properly selected biomarker-ensemble involved in the conserved DNA-damage and repair pathways among eukaryotes, were able to predict both in-vivo carcinogenicity in rats and Ames genotoxicity endpoints. The specific biomarkers identified are different for the two different phenotypic genotoxicity assays. The top-ranked five biomarkers for the in-vivo carcinogenicity prediction mainly focused on double strand break repair and DNA recombination, whereas the selected top-ranked biomarkers for Ames genotoxicity prediction are associated with base- and nucleotide-excision repair. Current toxicomics approach still mostly rely on large number of redundant markers without pre-selection or ranking, therefore, selection of relevant biomarkers with minimal redundancy would reduce the number of markers to be monitored and reduce the cost, time, and complexity of the toxicity screening and risk monitoring. The method developed in this study will help to fill in the knowledge gap in phenotypic anchoring and predictive toxicology, and contribute to the progress in the implementation of tox 21 vision for environmental and health applications.



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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rahman, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaeli, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dy, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alshawabkeh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, A. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.18.423486</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Machine Learning-based Biomarkers Identification and Validation from Toxicogenomics - Bridging to Regulatory Relevant Phenotypic Endpoints]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.18.423496v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Machine Leaning-based Determination of Sampling Depth for Complex Environmental Systems: Case Study with Single-Cell Raman Spectroscopy Data in EBPR Systems 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.18.423496v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Rapid progress in various advanced analytical methods such as single-cell technologies enable unprecedented and deeper understanding of microbial ecology beyond the resolution of conventional approaches. A major application challenge exists in the determination of sufficient sample size without sufficient prior knowledge of the community complexity and, the need to balance between statistical power and limited time or resources. This hinders the desired standardization and wider application of these technologies. Here, we proposed, tested and validated a computational sampling size assessment protocol taking advantage of a metric, named kernel divergence. This metric has two advantages: First, it directly compares dataset-wise distributional differences with no requirements on human intervention or prior knowledge-based pre-classification. Second, minimal assumptions in distribution and sample space are made in data processing to enhance its application domain. This enables test-verified appropriate handling of datasets with both linear and non-linear relationships. The model was then validated in a case study with eight SCRS phenotyping datasets each sampled from a different enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) activated sludge community located across North America. The model allows the determination of sufficient sampling size for any targeted or customized information capture capacity or resolution level. For example, an approximated sampling size of 50 or 100 spectra for full-scale EBPR-related ecosystems at 5% or 2% OPU cluster resolution. Promised by its flexibility and minimal restriction of input data types, the proposed method is expected to be a standardized approach for sampling size optimization, enabling more comparable and reproducible experiments and analysis on complex environmental samples. Finally, these advantages exhibit the capability of generalizing to other single-cell technologies or environmental applications, provided that the input datasets contain only continuous features.

TOC

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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srinivasan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaeli, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dy, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, A. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.18.423496</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Machine Leaning-based Determination of Sampling Depth for Complex Environmental Systems: Case Study with Single-Cell Raman Spectroscopy Data in EBPR Systems]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.29.424722v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stable Polymer Bilayers for Protein Channel Recordings at High Guanidinium Chloride Concentrations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.29.424722v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Use of chaotropic reagents is common in biophysical characterization of biomolecules. When the study involves transmembrane protein channels, the stability of the protein channel and supporting bilayer membrane must be considered. In this letter we show that planar bilayers composed of poly(1,2-butadiene)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) diblock copolymer are stable and leak-free at high guanidinium chloride concentrations, in contrast to diphytanoyl phosphatidylcholine bilayers which exhibit deleterious leakage under similar conditions. Further, insertion and functional analysis of channels such as -hemolysin and MspA are straightforward in these polymer membranes. Finally, we demonstrate that -hemolysin channels maintain their structural integrity at 2M guanidinium chloride concentrations using blunt DNA hairpins as molecular reporters.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alibakhshi, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pavlenok, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niederweis, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.29.424722</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stable Polymer Bilayers for Protein Channel Recordings at High Guanidinium Chloride Concentrations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.08.425944v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bottom-up inputs are required for the establishment of top-down connectivity onto cortical layer 1 neurogliaform cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.08.425944v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Higher order feedback projections to sensory cortical areas converge on layer 1 (L1), the primary site for integration of top-down information via the apical dendrites of pyramidal neurons and L1 GABAergic interneurons. Here, we investigated the contribution of early thalamic inputs onto L1 interneurons for the establishment of top-down inputs in the primary visual cortex. We find that bottom-up thalamic inputs predominate during early L1 development and preferentially target neurogliaform cells. We find that these projections are critical for the subsequent strengthening of feedback inputs from the anterior cingulate cortex. Enucleation or selective removal of thalamic afferents blocked this phenomenon. Notably, while early activation of anterior cingulate afferents resulted in a premature strengthening of these top-down inputs to neurogliaform cells, this was also dependent on thalamic inputs. Our results demonstrate that the proper establishment of top-down feedback inputs critically depends on bottom-up inputs from the thalamus during early postnatal development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ibrahim, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Otero, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vemuri, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Machold, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rudy, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fishell, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.08.425944</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bottom-up inputs are required for the establishment of top-down connectivity onto cortical layer 1 neurogliaform cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.16.426983v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Combined Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) and Nitrite Accumulation for Treating High-strength Wastewater 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.16.426983v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) has been widely applied in treating domestic wastewater, while the performance on high-strength P wastewater is less investigated and the feasibility of coupling with short-cut nitrogen removal process remains unknown. This study first achieved the simultaneous high-efficient P removal and stable nitrite accumulation in one sequencing batch reactor for treating the synthetic digested manure wastewater. The average effluent P could be down to 0.8 {+/-} 1.0 mg P/L and the P removal efficiency was 99.5 {+/-} 0.8%. Candidatus Accumulibacter was the dominant polyphosphate accumulating organism (PAO) with the relative abundance of 14.2-33.1% in the reactor. Examination of the micro-diversity of Candidatus Accumulibacter using 16s rRNA gene-based oligotyping analysis revealed one unique Accumulibacter oligotype that different from the conventional system, which accounted for 64.2-87.9% of the total Accumulibacter abundance. The presence of high-abundant glycogen accumulating organisms (GAO) (15.6-40.3%, Defluviicoccus and Candidatus Competibacter) did not deteriorate the EBPR performance. Moreover, nitrite accumulation happened in the system with the effluent nitrite up to 20.4 {+/-} 6.4 mg N/L and the nitrite accumulation ratio was nearly 100% maintained for 140 days (420 cycles). Nitrosomonas was the dominant ammonia-oxidizing bacteria with relative abundance of 0.3-2.4% while nitrite-oxidizing bacteria were almost undetected (<0.1%). The introduction of extended anaerobic phase and high volatile fatty acid concentrations were proposed to be the potential selector forces to promote partial nitrification. This is the first study that combined EBPR with nitrite-accumulation for digested manure wastewater treatment, and it provided new sights in strategies to combine the EBPR and short-cut nitrogen removal via nitrite to achieve simultaneous nitrogen and phosphorus removal.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yuan, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reid, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, A. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.16.426983</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Combined Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) and Nitrite Accumulation for Treating High-strength Wastewater]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.18.427189v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sterically-Confined Rearrangements of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Control Cell Invasion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.18.427189v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is highly contagious, and transmission involves a series of processes that may be targeted by vaccines and therapeutics. During transmission, host cell invasion is controlled by a large-scale conformational change of the Spike protein. This conformational rearrangement leads to membrane fusion, which creates transmembrane pores through which the viral genome is passed to the host. During Spike-protein-mediated fusion, the fusion peptides must be released from the core of the protein and associate with the host membrane. Interestingly, the Spike protein possesses many post-translational modifications, in the form of branched glycans that flank the surface of the assembly. Despite the large number of glycosylation sites, until now, the specific role of glycans during cell invasion has been unclear. Here, we propose that glycosylation is needed to provide sufficient time for the fusion peptides to reach the host membrane, otherwise the viral particle would fail to enter the host. To understand this process, an all-atom model with simplified energetics was used to perform thousands of simulations in which the protein transitions between the prefusion and postfusion conformations. These simulations indicate that the steric composition of the glycans induces a pause during the Spike protein conformational change. We additionally show that this glycan-induced delay provides a critical opportunity for the fusion peptides to capture the host cell. This previously-unrecognized role of glycans reveals how the glycosylation state can regulate infectivity of this pervasive pathogen.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dodero Rojas, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.18.427189</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sterically-Confined Rearrangements of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Control Cell Invasion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.22.426804v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bacterial galactosemia is caused by cytoplasmic interference of an essential cell wall biosynthesis glycosyltransferase 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.22.426804v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bacterial galactosemia or "galactose death," triggered by incomplete galactose metabolism, was first discovered in Escherichia coli and Salmonella six decades ago, and later in many other microorganisms, yet the mechanism for the toxicity and subsequent cell death remains unclear. In Bacillus subtilis, galactosemia is manifested by a buildup of uridine-diphosphate-galactose (UDP-Gal) and a strong toxicity phenotype characterized by cell shape abnormality and rapid cell lysis. Here we present evidence that in B. subtilis, the toxicity is due to inhibition of cell wall biosynthesis through interference of the essential glycosyltransferase MurG that carries out lipid II synthesis from lipid I and uridine-diphosphate-N-acetyl-glucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc). Single-molecule imaging reveals real-time inhibition of cell wall biosynthesis and MurG activities in cells exhibiting toxicity. We further show that in vitro, MurG is able to utilize UDP-Gal as a substrate generating a "toxic" lipid II, causing a potential poisoning effect on peptidoglycan crosslinking. Evidence also suggests a similar mechanism in Vibrio cholerae and Staphylococcus aureus. Lastly, a strong synergistic lethality was seen in S. aureus wild-type cells treated with both galactose and sub-lethal doses of cell-wall antibiotics. Our study provides mechanistic explanation of the toxicity associated with bacterial galactosemia and its potential application in antibacterial solutions.

SignificanceGalactosemia is a potentially fatal genetic disorder due to incomplete galactose metabolism, found in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. The molecular mechanisms of galactosemia-associated toxicity remain unclear in all cases. Here we present evidence that in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis, the toxicity is due to interference of an essential glycosyltransferase, MurG, which concerts lipid I to lipid II during peptidoglycan biosynthesis, by a nucleotide sugar derived from galactose metabolism. This interference leads to a halt of cell wall biosynthesis and structural defects causing rapid cell lysis. Our evidence also suggests a similar mechanism in other bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio cholerae. Our study may help solve the long-time puzzle of bacterial galactosemia first uncovered six decades ago.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Habib, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schneider, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garner, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.22.426804</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bacterial galactosemia is caused by cytoplasmic interference of an essential cell wall biosynthesis glycosyltransferase]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.25.428089v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PIP2 regulation of TRPC5 channel activation and desensitization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.25.428089v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transient receptor potential canonical type 5 (TRPC5) channels are expressed in the brain and kidney, and have been identified as promising therapeutic targets whose selective inhibition can protect against diseases driven by a leaky kidney filter. They are activated by elevated levels of extracellular Ca2+ or application of lanthanide ions but also by G protein (Gq/11) stimulation. Phosphatidylinositol bis-phosphate (PIP2) hydrolysis leads to protein kinase C- (PKC-) mediated phosphorylation of TRPC5 channels and desensitization of their activity. Even though PIP2 regulation of TRP channels is being widely studied, the roles of PIP2 in maintaining TRPC5 channel activity, the PIP2 involvement in channel stimulation by its hydrolysis product diacyl glycerol (DAG), or the desensitization of activity by DAG-stimulated PKC activity remain unclear. Here, we show that PIP2 controls both the PKC-mediated inhibition of TRPC5 currents as well as the activation by DAG and lanthanides and that it accomplishes this through control of gating rather than channel cell surface density. The mechanistic insights achieved by the present work promise to aid in the development of more selective and precise molecules to block TRPC5 channel activity and illuminate new therapeutic opportunities for targeted therapies for a group of diseases for which there is currently a great unmet need.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ningoo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plant, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greka, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Logothetis, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.25.428089</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PIP2 regulation of TRPC5 channel activation and desensitization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.25.428126v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Generalizable prediction of stimulus-independent, task-unrelated thought from functional brain networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.25.428126v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neural substrates of "mind wandering" have been widely reported, yet experiments have varied in their contexts and their definitions of this psychological phenomenon, limiting generalizability. We aimed to develop and test the generalizability, specificity, and clinical relevance of a functional brain network-based marker for a well-defined feature of mind wandering--stimulus-independent, task-unrelated thought (SITUT). Combining functional MRI (fMRI) with online experience sampling in healthy adults, we defined a connectome-wide model of inter-regional coupling--dominated by default-frontoparietal control subnetwork interactions--that predicted trial-by-trial SITUT fluctuations within novel individuals. Model predictions generalized in an independent sample of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) adults. In three additional resting-state fMRI studies (total n=1,115), including healthy and ADHD populations, we demonstrated further prediction of SITUT (at modest effect sizes) defined using multiple trait-level and in-scanner measures. Our findings suggest that SITUT is represented within a common pattern of brain network interactions across time scales, populations, and contexts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kucyi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esterman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capella, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Green, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uchida, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Biederman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabrieli, J. D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valera, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.25.428126</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Generalizable prediction of stimulus-independent, task-unrelated thought from functional brain networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.26.428161v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Resting State Functional Connectivity Predicts Future Changes in Sedentary Behavior 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.26.428161v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Information about a persons available energy resources is integrated in daily behavioral choices that weigh motor costs against expected rewards. It has been posited that humans have an innate attraction towards effort minimization and that executive control is required to overcome this prepotent disposition. With sedentary behaviors increasing at the cost of millions of dollars spent in health care and productivity losses due to physical inactivity-related deaths, understanding the predictors of sedentary behaviors will improve future intervention development and precision medicine approaches. In 64 healthy older adults participating in a 6-month aerobic exercise intervention, we use neuroimaging (resting state functional connectivity), baseline measures of executive function and accelerometer measures of time spent sedentary to predict future changes in objectively measured time spent sedentary in daily life. Using cross-validation and bootstrap resampling, our results demonstrate that functional connectivity between 1) the anterior cingulate cortex and the supplementary motor area and 2) the right anterior insula and the left temporoparietal/temporooccipital junction, predict changes in time spent sedentary, whereas baseline cognitive, behavioral and demographic measures do not. Previous research has shown activation in and between the anterior cingulate and supplementary motor area as well as in the right anterior insula during effort avoidance and tasks that integrate motor costs and reward benefits in effort-based decision making. Our results add important knowledge toward understanding mechanistic associations underlying complex sedentary behaviors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Morris, T. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kucyi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arnold Anteraper, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geddes, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieto-Castanon, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burzynska, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gothe, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fanning, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salerno, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hillman, C. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McAuley, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kramer, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.26.428161</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Resting State Functional Connectivity Predicts Future Changes in Sedentary Behavior]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.02.429151v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Lateral Undulation Aids Biological and Robotic Earthworm Anchoring and Locomotion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.02.429151v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris) are characterized by soft, highly flexible and extensible bodies, and are capable of locomoting in most terrestrial environments. Previous studies of earthworm movement have focused on the use of retrograde peristaltic gaits in which controlled contraction of longitudinal and circular muscles results in waves of shortening/thickening and thinning/lengthening of the hydrostatic skeleton. These waves can propel the animal across ground as well as into soil. However, worms can also benefit from axial body bends during locomotion. Such lateral undulation dynamics can aid locomotor function via hooking/anchoring (to provide propulsion), modify travel orientation (to avoid obstacles and generate turns) and even generate snake-like undulatory locomotion in environments where peristaltic locomotion results in poor performance. To the best of our knowledge, the important aspects of locomotion associated with the lateral undulation of an earthworm body are yet to be systematically investigated. In this study, we observed that within confined environments, the worm uses lateral undulation to anchor its body to the walls of their burrows and tip (nose) bending to search the environment. This relatively simple locomotion strategy drastically improved the performance of our soft bodied robophysical model of the earthworm both in a confined (in an acrylic tube) and above-ground heterogeneous environment (rigid pegs), where the peristaltic gait often fails. In summary, lateral undulation facilitates the mobility of earthworm locomotion in diverse environments and can play an important role in the creation of low cost soft robotic devices capable of traversing a variety of environments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ozkan-Aydin, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carruthers Ferrero, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seidel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hammond, F. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldman, D. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.02.429151</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lateral Undulation Aids Biological and Robotic Earthworm Anchoring and Locomotion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.10.430607v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Electrical Unfolding of Cytochrome c During Translocation Through a Nanopore Constriction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.10.430607v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many small proteins move across cellular compartments through narrow pores. In order to thread a protein through a constriction, free energy must be overcome to either deform or completely unfold the protein. In principle, the diameter of the pore, along with the effective driving force for unfolding the protein, as well as its barrier to translocation, should be critical factors that govern whether the process proceeds via squeezing, unfolding/threading, or both. To probe this for a well-established protein system, we studied the electric-field-driven translocation behavior of cytochrome c (cyt c) through ultrathin silicon nitride (SiNx) solid-state nanopores of diameters ranging from 1.5 to 5.5 nm. For a 2.5 nm diameter pore we find that, in a threshold electric field regime of [~]30-100 MV/m, cyt c is able to squeeze through the pore. As electric fields inside the pore are increased, the unfolded state of cyt c is thermodynamically stabilized, facilitating its translocation. In contrast, for 1.5 nm and 2.0 nm diameter pores, translocation occurs only by threading of the fully unfolded protein after it transitions through a higher energy unfolding intermediate state at the mouth of the pore. The relative energies between the metastable, intermediate, and unfolded protein states are extracted using a simple thermodynamic model that is dictated by the relatively slow ([~]ms) protein translocation times for passing through the nanopore. These experiments map the various modes of protein translocation through a constriction, which opens new avenues for exploring protein folding structures, internal contacts, and electric field-induced deformability.

Significance StatementCan localized electric fields drive the complete unfolding of a protein molecule? Protein unfolding prior to its translocation through a nanopore constriction is an important step in protein transport across biological membranes and also an important step in nanopore-based protein sequencing. We studied here the electric-field-driven translocation behavior of a model protein (cyt c) through nanopores of diameters ranging from 1.5 to 5.5 nm. These single molecule measurements show that electric fields at the nanopore constriction can select both partially and fully unfolded protein conformations. Zero-field free energy gaps between these conformations, found using a simple thermodynamic model, are in remarkable agreement with previously reported studies of cyt c unfolding energetics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tripathi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benabbas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehrafrooz, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yamazaki, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aksimentiev, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Champion, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.10.430607</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Electrical Unfolding of Cytochrome c During Translocation Through a Nanopore Constriction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.16.431382v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
FRET-based screening in HEK293T identifies p38 MAPK and PKC inhibition as therapeutic targets for α-synuclein aggregation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.16.431382v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Aggregation of -synuclein is associated with neurodegeneration and a hallmark pathology in synucleinopathies. These aggregates are thought to function as prion-like particles where the conformation of misfolded -synuclein determines the induced pathologys traits similar to prion diseases. Still, little is known about the molecular targets facilitating the conformation-specific biological effects, but their identification could form the basis for new therapeutic intervention. High-throughput screening (HTS) of annotated compound libraries could facilitate mechanistic investigation by identifying targets with impact on -synuclein aggregation. To this end, we developed a FRET-based cellular reporter in HEK293T cells, with sensitivity down to 6.5 nM -synuclein seeds. Using this model system, we identified GF109203X, SB202190, and SB203580 as inhibitors capable of preventing induction of - synuclein aggregation via inhibition of p38 MAPK and PKC, respectively. Our findings highlight the value HTS brings to the mechanistic investigation of -synuclein aggregation while simultaneously identifying novel therapeutic compounds.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Svanbergsson, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ek, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martinsson, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brandi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haikal, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torres-Garcia, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gouras, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olsson, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bjorklund, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.16.431382</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[FRET-based screening in HEK293T identifies p38 MAPK and PKC inhibition as therapeutic targets for α-synuclein aggregation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.18.431824v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Engineering the Immune Adaptor Protein STING as a Biologic 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.18.431824v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Activation of the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway through cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) has been explored extensively as potent vaccine adjuvants against infectious diseases as well as to increase tumor immunogenicity towards cancer immunotherapy in solid tumors. Over the last decade, a myriad of synthetic vehicles, including liposomes, polymers, and other nanoparticle platforms, have been developed to improve the bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy of STING agonists in preclinical mouse models. In comparison to synthetic materials, protein-based carriers represent an attractive delivery platform owing to their biocompatibility, amenability to genetic engineering, and intrinsic capacity to form well-defined structures. In the present work, we have engineered the immune adaptor STING as a protein-based delivery system for efficient encapsulation and intracellular delivery of CDNs. Through genetic fusion with a protein transduction domain, the recombinant STING can spontaneously penetrate cells to markedly enhance the delivery of CDNs in a mouse vaccination model and a syngeneic mouse melanoma model. Moreover, motivated by recent findings that certain tumor cells can evade immune surveillance via loss of STING expression, we further unveiled that our STING platform can serve as a functional vehicle to restore the STING signaling in a panel of lung and melanoma cell lines with impaired STING expression. Taken together, our STING-based protein delivery platform may offer a unique direction towards targeting STING-silenced tumors as well as augmenting the efficacy of STING-based vaccine adjuvants.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sun, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ni, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tani, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kitajima, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barbie, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.18.431824</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Engineering the Immune Adaptor Protein STING as a Biologic]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.24.432628v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Chemoenzymatic labeling of DNA methylation patterns for single-molecule epigenetic mapping 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.24.432628v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
DNA methylation, specifically, methylation of cytosine (C) nucleotides at the 5-carbon position (5-mC), is the most studied and among the most significant epigenetic modifications. Here we developed a chemoenzymatic procedure to fluorescently label non-methylated cytosines in the CpG context allowing epigenetic profiling of single DNA molecules spanning hundreds of thousands of base pairs. For this method, a CpG methyltransferase was used to transfer an azide to cytosines from a synthetic S-adenosyl-l-methionine cofactor analog. A fluorophore was then clicked onto the DNA, reporting on the amount and position of non-methylated CpGs. We found that labeling efficiency was increased two-fold by the addition of a nucleosidase that degrades the inactive by-product of the azide-cofactor after labeling, and prevents its inhibitory effect. We first used the method to determine the decline in global DNA methylation in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients and then performed whole genome methylation mapping of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Our genome maps show high concordance with published methylation maps produced by bisulfite sequencing. Although mapping resolution is limited by optical detection to 500-1000 base pairs, the labeled DNA molecules produced by this approach are hundreds of thousands of base pairs long, allowing access to long repetitive and structurally variable genomic regions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gabrieli, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michaeli, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Avraham, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torchinsky, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juhasz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coruh, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arbib, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Z. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Law, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weinhold, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ebenstein, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.24.432628</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Chemoenzymatic labeling of DNA methylation patterns for single-molecule epigenetic mapping]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.26.433045v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bi-phasic dynamics of the mitochondrial DNA mutation m.3243A>G in blood: An unbiased, mutation level-dependent model implies positive selection in the germline. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.26.433045v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The A-to-G point mutation at position 3243 in the human mitochondrial genome (m.3243A>G) is the most common pathogenic mtDNA variant responsible for disease in humans. It is widely accepted that m.3243A>G levels decrease in blood with age, and an age correction representing [~]2% annual decline is often applied to account for this change in mutation level. Here we report that recent data indicate the dynamics of m.3243A>G are more complex and depend on the mutation level in blood in a bi-phasic way. Consequently, the traditional 2% correction, which is adequate  on average, creates opposite predictive biases at high and low mutation levels. Unbiased age correction is needed to circumvent these drawbacks of the standard model. We propose to eliminate both biases by using an approach where age correction depends on mutation level in a biphasic way to account for the dynamics of m.3243A>G in blood. The utility of this approach was further tested in estimating germline selection of m.3243A>G. The biphasic approach permitted us to uncover patterns consistent with the possibility of positive selection for m.3243A>G. Germline selection of m.3243A>G shows an  arching profile by which selection is positive at intermediate mutant fractions and declines at high and low mutant fractions. We conclude that use of this biphasic approach will greatly improve the accuracy of modelling changes in mtDNA mutation frequencies in the germline and in somatic cells during aging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fleishmann, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pickett, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aidlen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stein, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markuzon, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Braverman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tilly, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turnbull, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.26.433045</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bi-phasic dynamics of the mitochondrial DNA mutation m.3243A>G in blood: An unbiased, mutation level-dependent model implies positive selection in the germline.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.28.433240v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Abnormal function in dentate nuclei precedes the onset of psychosis: a resting-state fMRI study in high-risk individuals 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.28.433240v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveThe cerebellum serves a wide range of functions and is suggested to be composed of discrete regions dedicated to unique functions. We recently developed a new parcellation of the dentate nuclei (DN), the major output nuclei of the cerebellum, which optimally divides the structure into three functional territories that contribute uniquely to default-mode, motor-salience, and visual processing networks as indexed by resting-state functional connectivity (RsFc). Here we test for the first time whether RsFc differences in the DN precede the onset of psychosis in individuals at risk of developing schizophrenia.

MethodsWe used the MRI dataset from the Shanghai At Risk for Psychosis study that included subjects at high risk to develop schizophrenia (N=144), with longitudinal follow-up to determine which subjects developed a psychotic episode within one year of their fMRI scan (converters N=23). Analysis used the three functional parcels (default-mode, salience-motor, and visual territory) from the DN as seed regions of interest for whole-brain RsFc analysis.

ResultsRsFc analysis revealed abnormalities at baseline in high-risk individuals who developed psychosis, compared to high-risk individuals who did not develop psychosis. The nature of the observed abnormalities was found to be anatomically specific such that abnormal RsFc was localized predominantly in cerebral cortical networks that matched the three functional territories of the DN that were evaluated.

ConclusionsWe show for the first time that abnormal RsFc of the DN may precede the onset of psychosis. This new evidence highlights the role of the cerebellum as a potential target for psychosis prediction and prevention.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Arnold Anteraper, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guell, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collin, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qi, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ren, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nair, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seidman, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keshavan, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCarley, R. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niznikiewicz, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shenton, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stone, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.28.433240</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Abnormal function in dentate nuclei precedes the onset of psychosis: a resting-state fMRI study in high-risk individuals]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.02.433619v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
FAM57B is a modulator of ceramide synthesis that regulates sphingolipid homeostasis and synaptic composition in the developing brain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.02.433619v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The complex 16p11.2 Deletion Syndrome (16pdel) is accompanied by neurological disorders, including epilepsy, autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. We demonstrate that 16pdel iPSC differentiated neurons showed augmented local field potential activity and altered ceramide-related lipid species relative to unaffected. FAM57B, a poorly characterized gene in the 16p11.2 interval, has emerged as a candidate tied to symptomatology. We found that FAM57B modulates ceramide synthase (CerS) activity, but is not a CerS per se. In FAM57B mutant human neuronal cells and zebrafish brain, composition and levels of sphingolipids and glycerolipids associated with cellular membranes are disrupted. Consistently, we observed aberrant plasma membrane architecture and synaptic protein mislocalization, which were accompanied by depressed brain and behavioral activity. Together, these results suggest that haploinsufficiency of FAM57B contributes to changes in neuronal activity and function in 16pdel Syndrome, through a crucial role for the gene in lipid metabolism.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tomasello, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khodour, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCammon, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitalipova, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaenisch, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Futerman, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sive, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.02.433619</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[FAM57B is a modulator of ceramide synthesis that regulates sphingolipid homeostasis and synaptic composition in the developing brain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.05.434104v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multi-Modality Machine Learning Predicting Parkinsons Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.05.434104v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundPersonalized medicine promises individualized disease prediction and treatment. The convergence of machine learning (ML) and available multi-modal data is key moving forward. We build upon previous work to deliver multi-modal predictions of Parkinsons Disease (PD).

MethodsWe performed automated ML on multi-modal data from the Parkinsons Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI). After selecting the best performing algorithm, all PPMI data was used to tune the selected model. The model was validated in the Parkinsons Disease Biomarker Program (PDBP) dataset. Finally, networks were built to identify gene communities specific to PD.

FindingsOur initial model showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 89.72% for the diagnosis of PD. The tuned model was then tested for validation on external data (PDBP, AUC 85.03%). Optimizing thresholds for classification, increased the diagnosis prediction accuracy (balanced accuracy) and other metrics. Combining data modalities outperforms the single biomarker paradigm. UPSIT was the largest contributing predictor for the classification of PD. The transcriptomic data was used to construct a network of disease-relevant transcripts.

InterpretationWe have built a model using an automated ML pipeline to make improved multi-omic predictions of PD. The model developed improves disease risk prediction, a critical step for better assessment of PD risk. We constructed gene expression networks for the next generation of genomics-derived interventions. Our automated ML approach allows complex predictive models to be reproducible and accessible to the community.

FundingNational Institute on Aging, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and the Global Parkinsons Genetics Program.

RESEARCH IN CONTEXTO_ST_ABSEvidence before this studyC_ST_ABSPrior research into predictors of Parkinsons disease (PD) has either used basic statistical methods to make predictions across data modalities, or they have focused on a single data type or biomarker model. We have done this using an open-source automated machine learning (ML) framework on extensive multi-modal data, which we believe yields robust and reproducible results. We consider this the first true multi-modality ML study of PD risk classification.

Added value of this studyWe used a variety of linear, non-linear, kernel, neural networks, and ensemble ML algorithms to generate an accurate classification of both cases and controls in independent datasets using data that is not involved in PD diagnosis itself at study recruitment. The model built in this paper significantly improves upon our previous models that used the entire training dataset in previous work1. Building on this earlier work, we showed that the PD diagnosis can be refined using improved algorithmic classification tools that may yield potential biological insights. We have taken careful consideration to develop and validate this model using public controlled-access datasets and an open-source ML framework to allow for reproducible and transparent results.

Implications of all available evidenceTraining, validating, and tuning a diagnostic algorithm for PD will allow us to augment clinical diagnoses or risk assessments with less need for complex and expensive exams. Going forward, these models can be built on remote or asynchronously collected data which may be important in a growing telemedicine paradigm. More refined diagnostics will also increase clinical trial efficiency by potentially refining phenotyping and predicting onset, allowing providers to identify potential cases earlier. Early detection could lead to improved treatment response and higher efficacy. Finally, as part of our workflow, we built new networks representing communities of genes correlated in PD cases in a hypothesis-free manner, showing how new and existing genes may be connected and highlighting therapeutic opportunities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Makarious, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leonard, H. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vitale, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iwaki, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sargent, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dadu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Violich, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutchins, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saffo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandres-Ciga, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bookman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nojopranoto, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Campbell, R. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hashemi, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Botia, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carter, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maleknia, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Craig, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keuren-Jensen, K. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morris, H. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hardy, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blauwendraat, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singleton, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faghri, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nalls, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Accelerating Medicines Program - Parkinsons Disease (AMP PD),</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Global Parkinsons Genetics Program (GP2),</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.05.434104</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multi-Modality Machine Learning Predicting Parkinsons Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.06.434197v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Refining Convergent Rate Analysis with Topology in Mammalian Longevity and Marine Transitions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.06.434197v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The quest to map the genetic foundations of phenotypes has been empowered by the modern diversity, quality, and availability of genomic resources. Despite these expanding resources, the abundance of variation within lineages makes the association of genetic change to specific phenotypes improbable. Drawing such connections requires an a priori means of isolating the associated changes from background genomic variation. Evolution may provide these means via convergence; i.e., the shared variation that may result from replicate evolutionary experiments across independent trait occurrences. To leverage these opportunities, we developed TRACCER: Topologically Ranked Analysis of Convergence via Comparative Evolutionary Rates. As compared to current methods, this software empowers rate convergence analysis by factoring in topological relationships, because variation between phylogenetically proximate trait changes is more likely to be facilitating the trait. Pairwise comparisons are performed not with singular branches, but in reference to their most recent common ancestors. This ensures that comparisons represent identical genetic contexts and timeframes while obviating the problematic requirement of assigning ancestral states. We applied TRACCER to two case studies: marine mammal transitions, an unambiguous trait which has independently evolved three times, as well as the evolution of mammalian longevity, a less delineated trait but with more instances to compare. TRACCER, by factoring in topology, identifies highly significant, convergent genetic signals in these test cases, with important incongruities and statistical resolution when compared to existing convergence approaches. These improvements in sensitivity and specificity generate refined targets for downstream analysis of convergent evolution and identification of genotype-phenotype relationships.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Treaster, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daane, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.06.434197</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Refining Convergent Rate Analysis with Topology in Mammalian Longevity and Marine Transitions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.10.434772v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Beyond residence time: quantifying factors that drive the spatially explicit filtration services of a 'pristine' oyster population 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.10.434772v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas (GTM) system is a relatively pristine and well-flushed estuary in Northeastern Florida, USA and characterized as having an extraordinarily high abundance of oysters. Historically, dense populations of oysters, such as those found in GTM, are believed to play an important role in water filtration; however, few biofiltration studies have had access to such pristine populations. To quantify the filtration service (FS) of Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) in GTM at several spatial scales (i.e. reef, watershed, estuary), we implemented a model that solves for the hydrodynamics and depletion of particulate matter passing over model oyster populations, the latter of which were derived from detailed bay-wide surveys. The model results suggested that oyster reefs populating the GTM play an important role in water quality by filtering ~60% of the estuarys volume within its residence time. Our approach teases apart the role of reef size, residence time, particle concentration, and other physical factors on the generation of FS at different spatial scales. Downstream effects were found to be very important for estuary FS, which depend on the spatial distribution of the reefs in the GTM and local and estuarine-scale hydrodynamics. Therefore, the difference between "realized" FS and the "potential" FS of a given reef may be substantial when considering the complex hydrodynamic and connectivity among populations at several scales. Our model results provide clear and actionable information for management of these oyster populations and conservation of their ecosystem services.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gray, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinton, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Canestrelli, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marcum, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dix, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kimbro, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grizzle, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.10.434772</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Beyond residence time: quantifying factors that drive the spatially explicit filtration services of a 'pristine' oyster population]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.15.435496v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Design and proof-of-concept for targeted phage-based COVID-19 vaccination strategies with a streamlined cold-free supply chain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.15.435496v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Development of effective vaccines against Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global imperative. Rapid immunization of the world human population against a widespread, continually evolving, and highly pathogenic virus is an unprecedented challenge, and many different vaccine approaches are being pursued to meet this task. Engineered filamentous bacteriophage (phage) have unique potential in vaccine development due to their inherent immunogenicity, genetic plasticity, stability, cost-effectiveness for large-scale production, and proven safety profile in humans. Herein we report the design, development, and initial evaluation of targeted phage-based vaccination approaches against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) by using dual ligand peptide-targeted phage and adeno-associated virus/phage (AAVP) particles. Towards a unique phage- and AAVP-based dual-display candidate approach, we first performed structure-guided antigen design to select six solvent-exposed epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein for display on the recombinant major capsid coat protein pVIII. Targeted phage particles carrying one of these epitopes induced a strong and specific humoral response. In an initial experimental approach, when these targeted phage particles were further genetically engineered to simultaneously display a ligand peptide (CAKSMGDIVC) on the minor capsid protein pIII, which enables receptor-mediated transport of phage particles from the lung epithelium into the systemic circulation (termed "dual-display"), they enhanced a systemic and specific spike (S) protein-specific antibody response upon aerosolization into the lungs of mice. In a second line of investigation, we engineered targeted AAVP particles to deliver the entire S protein gene under the control of a constitutive cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter, which induced tissue-specific transgene expression stimulating a systemic S protein-specific antibody response. As proof-of-concept preclinical experiments, we show that targeted phage- and AAVP-based particles serve as robust yet versatile enabling platforms for ligand-directed immunization and promptly yield COVID-19 vaccine prototypes for further translational development.

SignificanceThe ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic has accounted for over 2.5 million deaths and an unprecedented impact on the health of mankind worldwide. Over the past several months, while a few COVID-19 vaccines have received Emergency Use Authorization and are currently being administered to the entire human population, the demand for prompt global immunization has created enormous logistical challenges--including but not limited to supply, access, and distribution--that justify and reinforce the research for additional strategic alternatives. Phage are viruses that only infect bacteria and have been safely administered to humans as antibiotics for decades. As experimental proof-of-concept, we demonstrated that aerosol pulmonary vaccination with lung-targeted phage particles that display short epitopes of the S protein on the capsid as well as preclinical vaccination with targeted AAVP particles carrying the S protein gene elicit a systemic and specific immune response against SARS-CoV-2 in immunocompetent mice. Given that targeted phage- and AAVP-based viral particles are sturdy yet simple to genetically engineer, cost-effective for rapid large-scale production in clinical grade, and relatively stable at room temperature, such unique attributes might perhaps become additional tools towards COVID-19 vaccine design and development for immediate and future unmet needs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Staquicini, D. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, F. H. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markosian, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yao, V. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Staquicini, F. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dodero Rojas, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contessoto, V. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Brien, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Habib, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, T. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bruiners, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sidman, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gennaro, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lattime, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Libutti, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burley, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arap, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pasqualini, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.15.435496</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Design and proof-of-concept for targeted phage-based COVID-19 vaccination strategies with a streamlined cold-free supply chain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.15.435562v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Amotosalen is a bacterial multidrug efflux pump substrate potentially affecting its pathogen inactivation activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.15.435562v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pathogen inactivation is a strategy to improve the safety of transfusion products. The Cerus Intercept technology makes use of a psoralen compound called amotosalen in combination with UVA light to inactivate bacteria, viruses and protozoa. Psoralens have structural similarity to bacterial multidrug-efflux pump substrates. As these efflux pumps are often overexpressed in multidrug-resistant pathogens and with recent reported outbreaks of transfusion-associated sepsis with Acinetobacter, we tested whether contemporary drug-resistant pathogens might show resistance to amotosalen and other psoralens based on multidrug efflux mechanisms through microbiological, biophysical and molecular modeling analysis. The main efflux systems in Enterobacterales and Acinetobacter baumannii, tripartite RND (resistance-nodulation-cell division) systems which span the inner and outer membranes of Gram-negative pathogens and expel antibiotics from the bacterial cytoplasm into the extracellular space, were specifically examined. We found that amotosalen was an efflux substrate for the TolC-dependent RND efflux pumps in E. coli and the AdeABC efflux pump from Acinetobacter baumannii, and that minimal inhibitory concentrations for contemporary bacterial isolates in vitro approached and exceeded the concentration of amotosalen used in the approved platelet and plasma inactivation procedures. These findings suggest that otherwise safe and effective inactivation methods should be further studied to exclude possible gaps in their ability to inactivate contemporary, multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens.

ImportancePathogen inactivation is a strategy to enhance the safety of transfused blood products. We identify the compound, amotosalen, widely used for pathogen inactivation, as a bacterial multidrug efflux substrate. Specifically, experiments suggest that amotosalen is pumped out of bacteria by the major TolC-dependent RND efflux pumps in E. coli and the AdeABC efflux pump in Acinetobacter baumannii. Such efflux pumps are often overexpressed in multidrug-resistant pathogens. Importantly, the minimal inhibitory concentrations for contemporary multidrug-resistant Enterobacterales, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia spp., and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia isolates approached or exceeded the amotosalen concentration used in approved platelet and plasma inactivation procedures, potentially as a result of efflux pump activity. Although there are important differences in methodology between our experiments and blood product pathogen inactivation, these findings suggest that otherwise safe and effective inactivation methods should be further studied to exclude possible gaps in their ability to inactivate contemporary, multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Green, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zulauf, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Truelson, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiaraviglio, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ware, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flegel, W. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haspel, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirby, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.15.435562</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Amotosalen is a bacterial multidrug efflux pump substrate potentially affecting its pathogen inactivation activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.16.435657v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The interplay of chromatin phase separation and lamina interactions in nuclear organisation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.16.435657v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The genetic material of eukaryotes is segregated into transcriptionally active euchromatin and silent heterochromatin compartments. The spatial arrangement of chromatin compartments evolves over the course of cellular life in a process that remains poorly understood. The latest nuclear imaging experiments reveal a number of dynamical signatures of chromatin which are reminiscent of active multi-phase liquids. This includes the observations of viscoelastic response, coherent motions, Ostwald ripening and coalescence of chromatin compartments. There is also growing evidence that liquid-liquid phase separation of protein and nucleic acid components is the underlying mechanism for the dynamical behavior of chromatin. In order to dissect the organizational and dynamical implications of chromatins liquid behavior, we have devised a phenomenological field-theoretic model of nucleus as a multi-phase condensate of liquid chromatin types. Employing the liquid chromatin model of Drosophila nucleus, we have carried out an extensive set of simulations with an objective to shed light on the dynamics and chromatin patterning observed in the latest nuclear imaging experiments. Our simulations reveal the emergence of experimentally detected mesoscale chromatin channels and spheroidal droplets which arise from the dynamic interplay of chromatin type to type interactions and intermingling of chromosomal territories. We also quantitatively reproduce coherent motions of chromatin domains observed in displacement correlation spectroscopy measurements which are explained within the framework of our model by phase separation of chromatin types operating within constrained intra-chromosomal and inter-chromosomal boundaries. Finally, we illuminate the role of heterochromatin-lamina interactions in the nuclear organization by showing that these interactions enhance the mobility of euchromatin and indirectly introduce correlated motions of heterochromatin droplets.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe latest super-resolution imaging experiments have revealed a surprisingly dynamic and stochastic nature of chromatin in eukaryotic nuclei which is reminiscent of multi-phase fluid behavior. As a result, the concepts from the theory of complex fluids such as phase separation, viscoelasticity, and droplet nucleation have found widespread utility in understanding salient features of nuclear organization. In order to understand and disentangle the complex interplay of forces that contribute to the emergent patterns of organization and dynamics, we have devised a phenomenological field-theoretic model of nucleus as a multi-phase condensate of liquid chromatin types. Armed with a mesoscopic model of nuclear chromatin, we have shed light on the distinct dynamical and structural contributions of chromatin type interactions intermingling of chromosomal territories and lamina binding. We also shed light on the dynamical heterogeneity and coherent motions of chromatin domains which are fully captured by an interplay of micro-phase separation of chromatin types and lamina binding.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Laghmach, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Potoyan, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.16.435657</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The interplay of chromatin phase separation and lamina interactions in nuclear organisation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.16.435663v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Binary Interactome Models of Inner- Versus Outer-Complexome Organization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.16.435663v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hundreds of different protein complexes that perform important functions across all cellular processes, collectively comprising the "complexome" of an organism, have been identified1. However, less is known about the fraction of the interactome that exists outside the complexome, in the "outer-complexome". To investigate features of "inner"- versus outer-complexome organisation in yeast, we generated a high-quality atlas of binary protein-protein interactions (PPIs), combining three previous maps2-4 and a new reference all-by-all binary interactome map. A greater proportion of interactions in our map are in the outer-complexome, in comparison to those found by affinity purification followed by mass spectrometry5-7 or in literature curated datasets8-11. In addition, recent advances in deep learning predictions of PPI structures12 mirror the existing experimentally resolved structures in being largely focused on the inner complexome and missing most interactions in the outer-complexome. Our new PPI network suggests that the outer-complexome contains considerably more PPIs than the inner-complexome, and integration with functional similarity networks13-15 reveals that interactions in the inner-complexome are highly detectable and correspond to pairs of proteins with high functional similarity, while proteins connected by more transient, harder-to-detect interactions in the outer-complexome, exhibit higher functional heterogeneity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lambourne, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yadav, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desbuleux, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, D.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cafarelli, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pons, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kovacs, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jailkhani, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlabach, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Ridder, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luck, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bian, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mee, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacob, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lemmens, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rolland, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tavernier, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spirohn, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhong, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aloy, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Charloteaux, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roth, F. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hill, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calderwood, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Twizere, J.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vidal, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.16.435663</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Binary Interactome Models of Inner- Versus Outer-Complexome Organization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.23.436680v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Insular cortex corticotropin-releasing factor integrates stress signaling with social decision making. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.23.436680v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Impairments in social cognition manifest in a variety of psychiatric disorders, making the neurobiological mechanisms underlying social decision making of particular translational importance. The insular cortex is consistently implicated in stress-related social and anxiety disorders, which are associated with diminished ability to make and use inferences about the emotions of others to guide behavior. We investigated how corticotropin releasing factor (CRF), a neuromodulator evoked by both self and social stressors, influenced the insula. In acute slices from male and female rats, CRF depolarized insular pyramidal neurons. In males, but not females, CRF suppressed presynaptic GABAergic inhibition leading to greater excitatory synaptic efficacy in a CRF receptor 1 (CRF1) and cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) dependent fashion. In males only, insular CRF increased social investigation, and CRF1 and CB1 antagonists interfered with social decision making. To investigate the molecular and cellular basis for the effect of CRF we examined insular CRF1 and CB1 mRNAs and found greater total insula CRF1 mRNA in females but greater CRF1 and CB1 mRNA colocalization in male insular cortex glutamatergic neurons which suggest complex, sex-specific organization of CRF and endocannabinoid systems. Together these results reveal a new sex-specific mechanism by which stress and affect contribute to social decision making.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rieger, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varela, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ng, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Granata, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Djerdjaj, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenhouse, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christianson, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.23.436680</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Insular cortex corticotropin-releasing factor integrates stress signaling with social decision making.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.23.436681v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Derivation of stationary distributions of biochemical reaction networks via structure transformation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.23.436681v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Long-term behaviors of biochemical reaction networks (BRNs) are described by steady states in deterministic models and stationary distributions in stochastic models. Unlike deterministic steady states, stationary distributions capturing inherent fluctuations of reactions are extremely difficult to derive analytically due to the curse of dimensionality. Here, we develop a method to derive analytic stationary distributions from deterministic steady states by transforming BRNs to have a special dynamic property, called complex balancing. Specifically, we merge nodes and edges of BRNs to match in- and out-flows of each node. This allows us to derive the stationary distributions of a large class of BRNs, including autophosphorylation networks of EGFR, PAK1, and Aurora B kinase and a genetic toggle switch. This reveals the unique properties of their stochastic dynamics such as robustness, sensitivity and multi-modality. Importantly, we provide a user-friendly computational package, CASTANET, that automatically derives symbolic expressions of the stationary distributions of BRNs to understand their long-term stochasticity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hong, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al-Radhawi, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.23.436681</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Derivation of stationary distributions of biochemical reaction networks via structure transformation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.25.437113v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evolutionary differences in the ACE2 reveals the molecular origins of COVID-19 susceptibility 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.25.437113v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We explore the energetic frustration patterns associated with the binding between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the ACE2 receptor protein in a broad selection of animals. Using energy landscape theory and the concept of energy frustration--theoretical tools originally developed to study protein folding--we are able to identify interactions among residues of the spike protein and ACE2 that result in COVID-19 resistance. This allows us to identify whether or not a particular animal is susceptible to COVID-19 from the protein sequence of ACE2 alone. Our analysis predicts a number of experimental observations regarding COVID-19 susceptibility, demonstrating that this feature can be explained, at least partially, on the basis of theoretical means.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cheng, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dodero-Rojas, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.25.437113</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evolutionary differences in the ACE2 reveals the molecular origins of COVID-19 susceptibility]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.26.437209v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Development and Validation of Fluorescently Labeled, Functional Type I Collagen Molecules 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.26.437209v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While de novo collagen fibril formation is well-studied, there are few investigations into the growth and remodeling of extant fibrils, where molecular collagen incorporation into and erosion from the fibril surface must delicately balance during fibril growth and remodeling. Observing molecule/fibril interactions is difficult, requiring the tracking of molecular dynamics while, at the same time, minimizing the effect of the observation on fibril structure and assembly. To address the observation-interference problem, exogenous collagen molecules are tagged with small fluorophores and the fibrillogenesis kinetics of labeled collagen molecules as well as the structure and network morphology of assembled fibrils are quantified for the first time. While excessive labeling significantly disturbs fibrillogenesis kinetics and network morphology of assembled fibrils, adding less than ~1.2 labels preserves them. Applications of the functional, labeled collagen probe are demonstrated in both cellular and acellular systems. The functional, labelled collagen associates strongly with native fibrils and when added to an in vitro model of corneal stromal development, is endocytosed rapidly by cells and is translocated into synthesized matrix networks within 24 hours.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Siadat, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Susilo, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paten, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silverman, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DiMarzio, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruberti, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.26.437209</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Development and Validation of Fluorescently Labeled, Functional Type I Collagen Molecules]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.28.437328v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Perceiving and remembering speech depend on nonlinearity in movements producing and exploring speech 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.28.437328v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Speech perception and memory for speech require active engagement. Gestural theories have emphasized mainly the effect of speakers movements on speech perception. They fail to address the effects of listener movement, focusing on communication as a boundary condition constraining movement among interlocutors. The present work attempts to break new ground by using multifractal geometry of physical movement as a common currency for supporting both sides of the speaker-listener dyads. Participants self-paced their listening to a narrative, after which they completed a test of memory querying their narrative comprehension and their ability to recognize words from the story. The multifractal evidence of nonlinear interactions across timescales predicted the fluency of speech perception. Self-pacing movements that enabled listeners to control the presentation of speech sounds constituted a rich exploratory process. The multifractal nonlinearity of this exploration supported several aspects of memory for the perceived spoken language. These findings extend the role of multifractal geometry in the speakers movements to the narrative case of speech perception. In addition to posing novel basic research questions, these findings make a compelling case for calibrating multifractal structure in text-to-speech synthesizers for better perception and memory of speech.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bloomfield, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lane, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mangalam, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelty-Stephen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.28.437328</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Perceiving and remembering speech depend on nonlinearity in movements producing and exploring speech]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.28.437376v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Chemical-Enhanced System for CRISPR-Based Nucleic Acid Detection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.28.437376v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The CRISPR-based nucleic acid detection systems such as SHERLOCK, DETECTR and HOLMES have shown great potential for point-of-care testing of viral pathogens, especially in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Here we optimize several key parameters of reaction chemistry and develop a Chemical Enhanced CRISPR Detection system for nucleic acid (termed CECRID). For the Cas12a/Cas13a-based signal detection phase, we determine buffer conditions and substrate range for optimal detection performance. By comparing several chemical additives, we find that addition of L-proline can secure or enhance Cas12a/Cas13a detection capability. For isothermal amplification phase with typical LAMP and RPA methods, inclusion of L-proline can also enhance specific target amplification as determined by CRISPR detection. Using SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus, we demonstrate CECRID has enhanced detection sensitivity over chemical additive-null method with either fluorescence or lateral flow strip readout. Thus, CECRID provides an improved detection power and system robustness towards practical application of CRISPR-based diagnostics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.28.437376</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Chemical-Enhanced System for CRISPR-Based Nucleic Acid Detection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.29.437539v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Invertebrate methylomes provide insight into mechanisms of environmental tolerance and reveal methodological biases 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.29.437539v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
There is a growing focus on the role of DNA methylation in the ability of marine invertebrates to rapidly respond to changing environmental factors and anthropogenic impacts. However, genome-wide DNA methylation studies in non-model organisms are currently hampered by limited understanding of methodological biases. Here we compare three methods for quantifying DNA methylation at single base-pair resolution -- Whole Genome Bisulfite Sequencing (WGBS), Reduced Representation Bisulfite Sequencing (RRBS), and Methyl-CpG Binding Domain Bisulfite Sequencing (MBDBS) -- using multiple individuals from two reef-building coral species with contrasting environmental sensitivity. All methods reveal substantially greater methylation in Montipora capitata (11.4%) than the more sensitive Pocillopora acuta (2.9%). The majority of CpG methylation in both species occurs in gene bodies and flanking regions. In both species, MBDBS has the greatest capacity for detecting CpGs in coding regions at our sequencing depth, however MBDBS may be influenced by intra-sample methylation heterogeneity. RRBS yields robust information for specific loci albeit without enrichment of any particular genome feature and with significantly reduced genome coverage. Relative genome size strongly influences the number and location of CpGs detected by each method when sequencing depth is limited, illuminating nuances in cross-species comparisons. As genome-wide methylation differences, supported by data across bisulfite sequencing methods, may contribute to environmental sensitivity phenotypes in critical marine invertebrate taxa, these data provide a genomic resource for investigating the functional role of DNA methylation in environmental tolerance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Trigg, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkataraman, Y. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gavery, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roberts, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhattacharya, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Downey-Wall, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eirin-Lopez, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Puritz, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Putnam, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.29.437539</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Invertebrate methylomes provide insight into mechanisms of environmental tolerance and reveal methodological biases]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.30.437716v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A constitutively expressed fluorescence ubiquitin cell cycle indicator (FUCCI) in axolotls for studying tissue regeneration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.30.437716v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Regulation of cell cycle progression is essential for cell proliferation during regeneration following injury. After appendage amputation, the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) regenerates missing structures through an accumulation of proliferating cells known as the blastema. To study cell division during blastema growth, we generated a transgenic line of axolotls that ubiquitously expresses a bicistronic version of the Fluorescent Ubiquitination-based Cell Cycle Indicator (FUCCI). We demonstrate near-ubiquitous expression of FUCCI expression in developing and adult tissues and validate these expression patterns with DNA synthesis and mitosis phase markers. We demonstrate the utility of FUCCI for live and whole-mount imaging, showing the predominantly local contribution of cells during limb and tail regeneration. We also show that spinal cord amputation results in increased proliferation at least 5 mm from the injury. Finally, we use multimodal staining to provide cell type information for cycling cells by combining fluorescence in-situ hybridization, EdU click-chemistry, and immunohistochemistry on a single FUCCI tissue section. This new line of animals will be useful for studying cell cycle dynamics using in-situ endpoint assays and in-vivo imaging in developing and regenerating animals.

Summary statementWe generated a ubiquitous transgenic fluorescence ubiquitin cell cycle indicator (FUCCI) axolotl line for examination of cell cycle dynamics during tissue regeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Duerr, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeon, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wells, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Villanueva, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seifert, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCusker, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.30.437716</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A constitutively expressed fluorescence ubiquitin cell cycle indicator (FUCCI) in axolotls for studying tissue regeneration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.06.438705v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Designing, optimizing, and assessing modular functional near-infrared brain imaging probes using an automated software workflow 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.06.438705v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceThe exponential growth of research utilizing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) systems has led to the emergence of modular fNIRS systems composed of repeating optical source/detector modules. Compared to conventional fNIRS systems, modular fNIRS systems are more compact and flexible, making wearable and long-time monitoring possible. However, the large number of design parameters makes designing a modular probe a daunting task.

AimWe aim to create a systematic software platform to facilitate the design, characterization, and comparison of modular fNIRS probes.

ApproachOur algorithm automatically tessellates any region-of-interest using user-specified module design parameters and outputs performance metrics such as spatial channel distributions, average brain sensitivity, and sampling rate estimates of the resulting probe. Automated algorithms for spatial coverage, orientation, and routing of repeated modules are also developed.

ResultsWe developed a software platform to help explore a wide range of modular probe features and quantify their performances. We compare full-head probes using three different module shapes and highlight the trade-offs resulting from various module settings. Additionally, we show that one can apply this workflow to improve existing modular probes without needing to re-design or re-manufacture them.

ConclusionOur flexible modular probe design platform shows promise in optimizing existing modular probes and investigating future modular designs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vanegas, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mireles Nunez, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.06.438705</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Designing, optimizing, and assessing modular functional near-infrared brain imaging probes using an automated software workflow]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.07.438861v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Immunosuppression broadens evolutionary pathways to treatment failure during Acinetobacter baumannii pneumonia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.07.438861v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acinetobacter baumannii is increasingly refractory to antibiotic treatment in healthcare settings. As is true of most human pathogens, the genetic path to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the role that the immune system plays in modulating AMR during disease are poorly understood. Here we reproduced several routes to fluoroquinolone resistance, performing evolution experiments using sequential lung infections in mice that are replete or depleted of neutrophils, providing two key insights into the evolution of drug resistance. First, neutropenic hosts acted as reservoirs for the accumulation of drug resistance during drug treatment. Selection for variants with altered drug sensitivity profiles arose readily in the absence of neutrophils, while immunocompetent animals restricted the appearance of these variants. Secondly, antibiotic treatment failure in the immunocompromised host was shown to occur without clinically defined resistance, an unexpected result that provides a model for how antibiotic failure occurs clinically in the absence of AMR. The genetic mechanism underlying both these results is initiated by mutations activating the drug egress pump regulator AdeL, which drives persistence in the presence of antibiotic. Therefore, antibiotic persistence mutations present a two-pronged risk during disease, causing drug treatment failure in the immunocompromised host while simultaneously increasing the emergence of high-level AMR.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huo, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Busch, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamami, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez-Bird, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, C. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geisinger, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooper, V. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Opijnen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosch, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isberg, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.07.438861</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Immunosuppression broadens evolutionary pathways to treatment failure during Acinetobacter baumannii pneumonia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.11.439376v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Population Genetics of Gene Regulatory Networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.11.439376v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The evolution of diverse phenotypes both involves and is constrained by molecular interaction networks. When these networks influence patterns of expression, we refer to them as gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Here, we develop a quasi-species model of GRN evolution. With this model, we prove that-across a broad spectrum of viability and mutation functions-the dynamics converge to a stationary distribution over GRNs. Next, we show from first principles how the frequency of GRNs at equilibrium will be proportional to each GRNs eigenvector centrality in the genotype network. Finally, we determine the structural characteristics of GRNs that are favored in response to a range of selective environments and mutational constraints. Our work connects GRN evolution to quasi-species models, and thus can provide a mechanistic explanation for the topology of GRNs experiencing various evolutionary forces.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, C.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scarpino, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.11.439376</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Population Genetics of Gene Regulatory Networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.12.439510v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Longitudinal characterization of neuroanatomical changes in the Fischer 344 rat brain during normal aging and between sexes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.12.439510v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Animal models are widely used to study the pathophysiology of disease and to evaluate the efficacy of novel interventions, crucial steps towards improving disease outcomes in humans. The Fischer 344 (F344) wildtype rat is a common experimental background strain for transgenic models of disease and is also one of the most frequently used models in aging research. Despite frequency of use, characterization of neuroanatomical change with age has not been performed in the F344 rat. To this end, we present a comprehensive longitudinal examination of morphometric change in 73 brain regions and at a voxel-wise level during normative aging in a mixed-sex cohort of F344 rats. We identified age- and sex-related changes in regions such as the cortex, hippocampus, cingulum, caudoputamen, and nucleus accumbens, which are implicated in memory and motor control circuits frequently affected by aging and neurodegenerative disease. These findings provide a baseline for neuroanatomical changes associated with aging in male and female F344 rats, to which data from transgenic models or other background strains can be compared.

HIGHLIGHTSO_LIIn vivo magnetic resonance imaging reveals altered neuroanatomy in aging Fischer rats
C_LIO_LILinear and curvilinear age effects exist in both grey and white matter structures
C_LIO_LISex differences are primarily seen in grey matter structures
C_LIO_LIThis study clarifies normal aging trajectories across 73 brain regions in both sexes
C_LIO_LIImproved understanding of normal aging will inform future pathological aging studies
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fowler, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goerzen, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madularu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Devenyi, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Near, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakravarty, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.12.439510</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Longitudinal characterization of neuroanatomical changes in the Fischer 344 rat brain during normal aging and between sexes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.19.440538v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Programmable Microbial Ink for 3D Printing of Living Materials Produced from Genetically Engineered Protein Nanofibers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.19.440538v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Living cells have the capability to synthesize molecular components and precisely assemble them from the nanoscale to build macroscopic living functional architectures under ambient conditions.1-3 The emerging field of living materials has leveraged microbial engineering to produce materials for various applications, but building 3D structures in arbitrary patterns and shapes has been a major challenge.1-14 We set out to develop a new bioink, termed as "microbial ink" that is produced entirely from genetically engineered microbial cells, programmed to perform a bottom-up, hierarchical self-assembly of protein monomers into nanofibers, and further into nanofiber networks that comprise extrudable hydrogels. We further demonstrate the 3D printing of functional living materials by embedding programmed Escherichia coli (E. coli) cells and nanofibers into microbial ink, which can sequester toxic moieties, release biologics and regulate its own cell growth through the chemical induction of rationally designed genetic circuits. This report showcases the advanced capabilities of nanobiotechnology and living materials technology to 3D-print functional living architectures.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Duraj-Thatte, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manjula Basavanna, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rutledge, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hassan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sourlis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubio, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lesha, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zenkl, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weitz, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.19.440538</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Programmable Microbial Ink for 3D Printing of Living Materials Produced from Genetically Engineered Protein Nanofibers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.19.440545v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The dynamics of subunit rotation in a eukaryotic ribosome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.19.440545v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protein synthesis by the ribosome is coordinated by an intricate series of large-scale conformational rearrangements. Structural studies can provide information about long-lived states, however biological kinetics are controlled by the intervening free-energy barriers. While there has been progress describing the energy landscapes of bacterial ribosomes, very little is known about the energetics of large-scale rearrangements in eukaryotic systems. To address this topic, we constructed an all-atom model with simplified energetics and performed simulations of subunit rotation in the yeast ribosome. In these simulations, the small subunit (SSU; ~1MDa) undergoes spontaneous and reversible rotations (~ 8{degrees}). By enabling the simulation of this rearrangement under equilibrium conditions, these calculations provide initial insights into the molecular factors that control dynamics in eukaryotic ribosomes. Through this, we are able to identify specific inter-subunit interactions that have a pronounced influence on the rate-limiting free-energy barrier. We also show that, as a result of changes in molecular flexibility, the thermodynamic balance between the rotated and unrotated states is temperature-dependent. This effect may be interpreted in terms of differential molecular flexibility within the rotated and unrotated states. Together, these calculations provide a foundation, upon which the field may begin to dissect the energetics of these complex molecular machines.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Freitas, F. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuchs, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oliveira, R. J. d.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.19.440545</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The dynamics of subunit rotation in a eukaryotic ribosome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.20.440626v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multidose evaluation of 6,710 drug repurposing library identifies potent SARS-CoV-2 infection inhibitors In Vitro and In Vivo. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.20.440626v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Identification of host factors contributing to replication of viruses and resulting disease progression remains a promising approach for development of new therapeutics. Here, we evaluated 6710 clinical and preclinical compounds targeting 2183 host proteins by immunocytofluorescence-based screening to identify SARS-CoV-2 infection inhibitors. Computationally integrating relationships between small molecule structure, dose-response antiviral activity, host target and cell interactome networking produced cellular networks important for infection. This analysis revealed 389 small molecules, >12 scaffold classes and 813 host targets with micromolar to low nanomolar activities. From these classes, representatives were extensively evaluated for mechanism of action in stable and primary human cell models, and additionally against Beta and Delta SARS-CoV-2 variants and MERS-CoV. One promising candidate, obatoclax, significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2 viral lung load in mice. Ultimately, this work establishes a rigorous approach for future pharmacological and computational identification of novel host factor dependencies and treatments for viral diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Patten, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keiser, P. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gysi, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menichetti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mori, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donahue, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gan, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>do Valle, I. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geoghegan-Barek, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anantpadma, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berrigan, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jalloh, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayazika, K. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wagner, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zitnik, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayehunie, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loscalzo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gummuluru, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Namchuk, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davey, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.20.440626</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multidose evaluation of 6,710 drug repurposing library identifies potent SARS-CoV-2 infection inhibitors In Vitro and In Vivo.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.21.440070v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CMOS electrochemical imaging arrays for thedetection and classification of microorganisms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.21.440070v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Microorganisms account for most of the biodiversity on earth. Yet while there are increasingly powerful tools for studying microbial genetic diversity, there are fewer tools for studying microorganisms in their natural environments. In this paper, we present recent advances in CMOS electrochemical imaging arrays for detecting and classifying microorganisms. These microscale sensing platforms can provide non-optical measurements of cell geometries, behaviors, and metabolic markers. We review integrated electronic sensors appropriate for monitoring microbial growth, and present measurements of single-celled algae using a CMOS sensor array with thousands of active pixels. Integrated electrochemical imaging can contribute to improved medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring, as well as discoveries of new microbial populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Arcadia, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Epstein, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adler, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenstein, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.21.440070</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CMOS electrochemical imaging arrays for thedetection and classification of microorganisms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.24.441211v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Droplet sample preparation for single-cell proteomics applied to the cell cycle 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.24.441211v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many biological processes, such as the cell division cycle, are reflected in protein covariation across single cells. This covariation can be quantified and interpreted by single-cell mass-spectrometry (MS) with sufficiently high throughput and accuracy. Towards this goal, we developed nPOP, a method that uses piezo acoustic dispensing to isolate individual cells in 300 picoliter volumes and performs all subsequent sample preparation steps in small droplets on a fluorocarbon-coated slide. This design enabled simultaneous sample preparation of thousands of single cells, including lysing, digesting, and labeling individual cells in volumes of 8-20 nl. Protein covariation analysis identified cell-cycle dynamics that were similar across cell types and dynamics that differed between cell types, even within sub-populations of melanoma cells defined by markers for drug-resistance priming. The melanoma cells expressing these markers accumulated in the G1 phase of the cell cycle, displayed distinct protein covariation across the cell cycle, accumulated glycogen, and had lower abundance of glycolytic enzymes. The non-primed melanoma cells exhibited gradients of protein abundance and covariation, suggesting transition states. These results were validated by different MS methods. Together, they demonstrate that protein covariation across single cells may reveal functionally concerted biological differences between closely related cell states.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huffman, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.24.441211</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Droplet sample preparation for single-cell proteomics applied to the cell cycle]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.29.441921v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cluster Size Distribution of Cells Disseminating from a Primary Tumor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.29.441921v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The first stage of the metastatic cascade often involves motile cells emerging from a primary tumor either as single cells or as clusters. These cells enter the circulation, transit to other parts of the body and finally are responsible for growth of secondary tumors in distant organs. The mode of dissemination is believed to depend on the EMT nature (epithelial, hybrid or mesenchymal) of the cells. Here, we calculate the cluster size distribution of these migrating cells, using a mechanistic computational model, in presence of different degree of EMT-ness of the cells; EMT is treated as given rise to changes in their active motile forces () and cell-medium surface tension ({Gamma}). We find that, for ( > min, {Gamma} > 1), when the cells are hybrid in nature, the mean cluster size, [Formula], where min increases with increase in {Gamma}. For {Gamma} [&le;] 0, [Formula], the cells behave as completely mesenchymal. In presence of spectrum of hybrid states with different degree of EMT-ness (motility) in primary tumor, the cells which are relatively more mesenchymal (higher ) in nature, form larger clusters, whereas the smaller clusters are relatively more epithelial (lower ). Moreover, the heterogeneity in  is comparatively higher for smaller clusters with respect to that for larger clusters. We also observe that more extended cell shapes promote the formation of smaller clusters. Overall, this study establishes a framework which connects the nature and size of migrating clusters disseminating from a primary tumor with the phenotypic composition of the tumor, and can lead to the better understanding of metastasis.

Author summaryIn the process of metastasis, tumor cells disseminate from the primary tumor either as single cells or multicellular clusters. These clusters are potential contributor to the initiation of secondary tumor in distant organs. Our computational model captures the size distribution of migrating clusters depending on the adhesion and motility of the cells (which determine the degree of their EMT nature). Furthermore, we investigate the effect of heterogeneity of cell types in the primary tumor on the resultant heterogeneity of cell types in clusters of different sizes. We believe that the understanding the formation and nature of these clusters, dangerous actors in the deadly aspect of cancer progression, will be useful for improving prognostic methods and eventually better treatments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mukherjee, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.29.441921</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cluster Size Distribution of Cells Disseminating from a Primary Tumor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.29.441958v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Morphine exposure bidirectionally alters c-Fos expression in a sex-, age-, and brain region-specific manner during adolescence 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.29.441958v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Drug and alcohol use during adolescence is common, and data in both humans and preclinical animal models clearly indicate drug exposure during adolescence increases the risk of substance use and other mental health disorders later in life. Adolescence is a period of social, emotional, and cognitive development, and is characterized by increased exploratory behavior, risk-taking, and peer-centered social interactions. These are thought to be behavioral manifestations of developmental plasticity in  reward regions of the brain. Human data indicate that adolescence is not a unitary developmental period, but rather different neural and behavioral sequelae can be observed in early vs. late adolescence. However, most studies with rodent models examine a single adolescent age compared to a mature adult age, and often only in males. Herein, we sought to determine whether the acute response to the opioid morphine would also differ across adolescence, and by sex. By quantifying c-Fos positive cells, a proxy for neural activity, at different stages during adolescence (pre-, early, mid-, and late adolescence) and in multiple reward regions (prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, caudate/putamen), we determined that acute morphine can either reduce or increase c-Fos expression dependent on adolescent age, sex, and brain region. These data suggest that heterogeneity in the consequences of adolescent opioid exposure may be due to the interaction between age- and sex-specific developmental profiles of reward processing in individual brain regions. In future studies, it will be important to add age within adolescence as an independent variable to fully capture the consequences of healthy or abnormal reward-related neural development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Figueroa, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DiSpirito, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bourgeois, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalyanasundaram, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doshi, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bilbo, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kopec, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.29.441958</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Morphine exposure bidirectionally alters c-Fos expression in a sex-, age-, and brain region-specific manner during adolescence]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.02.442361v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
METTL8 is required for 3-methylcytosine modification in human mitochondrial tRNAs 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.02.442361v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A subset of eukaryotic tRNAs is methylated in the anticodon loop to form the 3-methylcytosine (m3C) modification. In mammals, the number of tRNAs containing m3C has expanded to include mitochondrial (mt) tRNA-Ser-UGA and mt-tRNA-Thr-UGU. Whereas the enzymes catalyzing m3C formation in nuclear-encoded cytoplasmic tRNAs have been identified, the proteins responsible for m3C modification in mt-tRNAs are unknown. Here, we show that m3C formation in human mt-tRNAs is dependent upon the Methyltransferase-Like 8 (METTL8) enzyme. We find that METTL8 is a mitochondria-associated protein that interacts with mitochondrial seryl-tRNA synthetase along with mt-tRNAs containing m3C. Human cells deficient in METTL8 exhibit loss of m3C modification in mt-tRNAs but not nuclear-encoded tRNAs. Consistent with the mitochondrial import of METTL8, the formation of m3C in METTL8-deficient cells can be rescued by re-expression of wildtype METTL8 but not by a METTL8 variant lacking the N-terminal mitochondrial localization signal. Notably, METTL8-deficiency in human cells causes alterations in the native migration pattern of mt-tRNA-Ser-UGA suggesting a role for m3C in tRNA folding. Altogether, these findings demonstrate that METTL8 is required for m3C formation in mitochondrial tRNAs and uncover a potential role for m3C modification in mitochondrial tRNA structure.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lentini, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bargabos, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.02.442361</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[METTL8 is required for 3-methylcytosine modification in human mitochondrial tRNAs]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.03.442478v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Digital 3D Brain MRI Arterial Territories Atlas 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.03.442478v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The locus and extent of brain damage in the event of vascular insult can be quantitatively established quickly and easily with vascular atlases. Although highly anticipated by clinicians and clinical researchers, no digital MRI arterial atlas is readily available for automated data analyses. We created a digital arterial territory atlas based on lesion distributions in 1,298 patients with acute stroke. The lesions were manually traced in the diffusion-weighted MRIs, binary stroke masks were mapped to a common space, probability maps of lesions were generated and the boundaries for each arterial territory was defined based on the ratio between probabilistic maps. The atlas contains the definition of four major supra- and infra-tentorial arterial territories: Anterior, Middle, Posterior Cerebral Arteries and Vertebro-Basilar, and sub-territories (thalamoperforating, lenticulostriate, basilar and cerebellar arterial territories), in two hierarchical levels. This study provides the first publicly-available, digital, 3D deformable atlas of arterial brain territories, which may serve as a valuable resource for large-scale, reproducible processing and analysis of brain MRIs of patients with stroke and other conditions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, N. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheppard, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meier, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hillis, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faria, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.03.442478</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Digital 3D Brain MRI Arterial Territories Atlas]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.06.442938v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
massNet: integrated processing and classification of spatially resolved mass spectrometry data using deep learning for rapid tumor delineation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.06.442938v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationMass spectrometry imaging (MSI) provides rich biochemical information in a label-free manner and therefore holds promise to substantially impact current practice in disease diagnosis. However, the complex nature of MSI data poses computational challenges in its analysis. The complexity of the data arises from its large size, high dimensionality, and spectral non-linearity. Preprocessing, including peak picking, has been used to reduce raw data complexity, however peak picking is sensitive to parameter selection that, perhaps prematurely, shapes the downstream analysis for tissue classification and ensuing biological interpretation.

ResultsWe propose a deep learning model, massNet, that provides the desired qualities of scalability, non-linearity, and speed in MSI data analysis. This deep learning model was used, without prior preprocessing and peak picking, to classify MSI data from a mouse brain harboring a patient-derived tumor. The massNet architecture established automatically learning of predictive features, and automated methods were incorporated to identify peaks with potential for tumor delineation. The models performance was assessed using cross-validation, and the results demonstrate higher accuracy and a 174-fold gain in speed compared to the established classical machine learning method, support vector machine.

Availability and ImplementationThe code is publicly available on GitHub.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Abdelmoula, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stopka, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Randall, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Regan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agar, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sarkaria, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wells, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kapur, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agar, N. Y. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.06.442938</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[massNet: integrated processing and classification of spatially resolved mass spectrometry data using deep learning for rapid tumor delineation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.07.442998v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spatial-temporal targeted and non-targeted surveys to assess microbiological composition of drinking water in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.07.442998v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Loss of basic utilities, such as drinking water and electricity distribution, were sustained for months in the aftermath of Hurricane Marias (HM) landfall in Puerto Rico (PR) in September 2017. The goal of this study was to assess if there was deterioration in biological quality of drinking water due to these disruptions. This study characterized the microbial composition of drinking water following HM across nine drinking water systems (DWSs) in PR and utilized an extended temporal sampling campaign to determine if changes in the drinking water microbiome were indicative of HM associated disturbance followed by recovery. In addition to monitoring water chemistry, the samples were subjected to culture independent targeted and non-targeted microbial analysis including quantitative PCR (qPCR) and genome-resolved metagenomics. The qPCR results showed that residual disinfectant was the major driver of bacterial concentrations in tap water with marked decrease in concentrations from early to late sampling timepoints. While Mycobacterium avium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were not detected in any sampling locations and timepoints, genetic material from Leptospira and Legionella pneumophila were transiently detected in a few sampling locations. The majority of metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) recovered from these samples were not associated with pathogens and were consistent with bacterial community members routinely detected in DWSs. Further, whole metagenome-level comparisons between drinking water samples collected in this study with samples from other full-scale DWS indicated no significant deviation from expected community membership of the drinking water microbiome. Overall, our results suggest that disruptions due to HM did not result in significant and sustained deterioration of biological quality of drinking water at our study sites.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=86 SRC="FIGDIR/small/442998v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (29K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@100c1e9org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@bae402org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1cf41bborg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e46105_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sevillano, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vosloo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cotto, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santiago Santana, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padilla, I. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosario-Pabon, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Velez Vega, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cordero, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alshawabkeh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, A. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.07.442998</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spatial-temporal targeted and non-targeted surveys to assess microbiological composition of drinking water in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.13.443967v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Automated, high-accuracy, remote measurement of heart rate 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.13.443967v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Arrhythmia is a marked symptom of many cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The accurate and timely detection of heart rate can greatly reduce the harm of arrhythmia to people. However, it is still a challenge to robustly and remotely measure heart rate in daily life due to the changing environmental conditions during measurement, such as the varying light intensity, the movement of people, and the uncertain distance between the sensor to people. In this study, we propose a method to accurately measure human heart rate within a distance of 4.5 meters under different light intensities by simply using a surveillance camera. After a 20-second color video of a persons hand is captured by the camera, a method based on the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm is designed to extract the blood volume pulse wave to calculate the heart rate. According to the comparison between the real heart rate and results measured by electrocardiography (ECG), the proposed method achieves an accuracy of 95.8% when the measurement is performed within a distance of 4.5 meters and 90% when within 5.0 meters. Our experiments show that when the illuminance varies between 100-1000 lux (lighting level indoor), we still get the correct results. Our experiments also demonstrate that the proposed method accurately obtain heart rate even when the light intensity is below 32 lux (300-500 lux in a workplace environment). The methods strong adaptability to changing environmental conditions makes it applicable to many scenarios, such as homes of the elderly, classrooms, and other public spaces.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lian, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xin, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.13.443967</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Automated, high-accuracy, remote measurement of heart rate]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.17.443632v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
"How do we do this at a distance?!" A descriptive study of remote undergraduate research programs during COVID-19 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.17.443632v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The COVID-19 pandemic shut down undergraduate research programs across the U.S. Twenty-three sites offered remote undergraduate research programs in the life sciences during summer 2020. Given the unprecedented offering of remote research experiences, we carried out a study to describe and evaluate these programs. Using structured templates, we documented how programs were designed and implemented, including who participated. Through focus groups and surveys, we identified programmatic strengths and shortcomings as well as recommendations for improvements from the perspectives of participating students. Strengths included the quality of mentorship, opportunities for learning and professional development, and development of a sense of community. Weaknesses included limited cohort building, challenges with insufficient structure, and issues with technology. Although all programs had one or more activities related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, these topics were largely absent from student reports even though programs coincided with a peak in national consciousness about racial inequities and structural racism. Our results provide evidence for designing remote REUs that are experienced favorably by students. Our results also indicate that remote REUs are sufficiently positive to further investigate their affordances and constraints, including the potential to scale up offerings, with minimal concern about disenfranchising students.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Erickson, O. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cole, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isaacs, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez-Clare, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arnold, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Augustus-Wallace, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayoob, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berkowitz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Branchaw, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burgio, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cannon, C. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ceballos, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coller, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Disney, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doze, V. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eggers, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farina, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferguson, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gray, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenberg, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jensen-Ryan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kao, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keene, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kowalko, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mathis, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Minkara, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murren, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ondrechen, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ordonez, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osano, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padilla-Crespo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palchoudhury, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qin, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez-Lugo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reithel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaw, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Su</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.17.443632</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA["How do we do this at a distance?!" A descriptive study of remote undergraduate research programs during COVID-19]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.21.445143v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A proteomics sample metadata representation for multiomics integration, and big data analysis. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.21.445143v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The amount of public proteomics data is increasing at an extraordinary rate. Hundreds of datasets are submitted each month to ProteomeXchange repositories, representing many types of proteomics studies, focusing on different aspects such as quantitative experiments, post-translational modifications, protein-protein interactions, or subcellular localization, among many others. For every proteomics dataset, two levels of data are captured: the dataset description, and the data files (encoded in different file formats). Whereas the dataset description and data file formats are supported by all ProteomeXchange partner repositories, there is no standardized format to properly describe the sample metadata and their relationship with the dataset files in a way that fully allows their understanding or re-analysis. It is left to the users choice whether to provide or not an ad hoc document containing this information. Therefore, in many cases, understanding the study design and data requires going back to the associated publication. This can be tedious and may be restricted in the case of non-open access publications. In many cases, this problem limits the generalization and reuse of public proteomics data.

Here we present a standard representation for sample metadata tailored to proteomics datasets produced by the HUPO Proteomics Standards Initiative and supported by ProteomeXchange resources. We repurposed the existing data format MAGE-TAB used routinely in the transcriptomics field to represent and annotate proteomics datasets. MAGETAB-Proteomics defines a set of annotation rules that the datasets submitted to ProteomeXchange should follow, ranging from sample properties to data analysis protocols. We also introduce a crowdsourcing project that enabled the manual curation of over 200 public datasets using MAGE-TAB-Proteomics. In addition, we describe an ecosystem of tools and libraries that were developed to validate and submit sample metadata-related information to ProteomeXchange. We expect that these tools will improve the reproducibility of published results and facilitate the reanalysis and integration of public proteomics datasets.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dai, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fullgrabe, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pfeuffer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Solovyeva, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moreno, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamatchinathan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaiswal Kundu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fexova, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gruning, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foll, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griss, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaudel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Audain, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Locard-Paulet, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turewicz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eisenacher, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uszkoreit, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Den Bossche, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwammle, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Webel, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schulze, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bouyssie, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jayaram, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar Duggineni, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samaras, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilhelm, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kohlbacher, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brazma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Papatheodorou, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandeira, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>W. Deutsch, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vizcaino, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bai, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levitsky, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sachsenberg, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perez-Riverol, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.21.445143</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A proteomics sample metadata representation for multiomics integration, and big data analysis.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.29.446289v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.29.446289v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We acquired a rapidly preserved human surgical sample from the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex. We stained a 1 mm3 volume with heavy metals, embedded it in resin, cut more than 5000 slices at [~]30 nm and imaged these sections using a high-speed multibeam scanning electron microscope. We used computational methods to render the three-dimensional structure containing 57,216 cells, hundreds of millions of neurites and 133.7 million synaptic connections. The 1.4 petabyte electron microscopy volume, the segmented cells, cell parts, blood vessels, myelin, inhibitory and excitatory synapses, and 104 manually proofread cells are available to peruse online. Many interesting and unusual features were evident in this dataset. Glia outnumbered neurons 2:1 and oligodendrocytes were the most common cell type in the volume. Excitatory spiny neurons comprised 69% of the neuronal population, and excitatory synapses also were in the majority (76%). The synaptic drive onto spiny neurons was biased more strongly toward excitation (70%) than was the case for inhibitory interneurons (48%). Despite incompleteness of the automated segmentation caused by split and merge errors, we could automatically generate (and then validate) connections between most of the excitatory and inhibitory neuron types both within and between layers. In studying these neurons we found that deep layer excitatory cell types can be classified into new subsets, based on structural and connectivity differences, and that chandelier interneurons not only innervate excitatory neuron initial segments as previously described, but also each others initial segments. Furthermore, among the thousands of weak connections established on each neuron, there exist rarer highly powerful axonal inputs that establish multi-synaptic contacts (up to [~]20 synapses) with target neurons. Our analysis indicates that these strong inputs are specific, and allow small numbers of axons to have an outsized role in the activity of some of their postsynaptic partners.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shapson-Coe, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Januszewski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berger, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pope, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blakely, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schalek, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maitlin-Shepard, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karlupia, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dorkenwald, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sjostedt, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leavitt, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bailey, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fitzmaurice, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Field, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wagner-Carena, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aley, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lau, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pfister, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peleg, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lichtman, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.29.446289</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A connectomic study of a petascale fragment of human cerebral cortex]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.12.448098v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cysteine dependence in Lactobacillus iners constitutes a novel therapeutic target to modify the vaginal microbiota 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.12.448098v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vaginal microbiota composition affects several important reproductive health outcomes. Lactobacillus crispatus-dominant bacterial communities have favorable associations whereas anaerobe-dominant communities deficient of lactobacilli are linked to poor outcomes, including bacterial vaginosis (BV). Lactobacillus iners, the most abundant vaginal species worldwide, has adverse associations compared to L. crispatus, but standard metronidazole treatment for BV promotes L. iners-dominance, likely contributing to post-treatment relapse. L. iners is under-studied because it fails to grow in standard Lactobacillus media in vitro. Here we trace this in vitro phenotype to a species-specific cysteine requirement associated with limitations in cysteine-related transport mechanisms and show that vaginal cysteine concentrations correlate with Lactobacillus abundance in vivo. We demonstrate that cystine uptake inhibitors selectively impede L. iners growth and that combining an inhibitor with metronidazole thus promotes L. crispatus dominance of defined BV-like communities. These findings identify a novel target for therapeutic vaginal microbiota modulation to improve reproductive health.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bloom, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mafunda, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woolston, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayward, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frempong, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abai, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Westergaard, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hussain, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xulu, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gumbi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ceasar, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rice, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choksi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ismail, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ndung'u, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghebremichael, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balskus, E. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kwon, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.12.448098</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cysteine dependence in Lactobacillus iners constitutes a novel therapeutic target to modify the vaginal microbiota]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.14.448463v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Profiling the in vitro and in vivo activity of streptothricin-F against carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales: a historic scaffold with a novel mechanism of action 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.14.448463v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Streptothricins are components of the natural product, nourseothricin; each containing identical streptolidine and gulosamine aminosugar moieties attached to varying numbers of linked {beta}-lysines. Nourseothricin was discovered by Waksman and colleagues in the early 1940s, generating intense interest because of excellent Gram-negative activity. However, the natural product mixture was associated with toxicity, and subsequent exploration was limited. Here, we establish the activity spectrum of nourseothricin and its main components, streptothricin-F (S-F, one lysine) and streptothricin D (S-D, three lysines), purified to homogeneity, against highly drug-resistant, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE). The MIC50 and MIC90 for S-F and S-D were 2 and 4 {micro}M, and 0.25 and 0.5 {micro}M, respectively. S-F and nourseothricin showed rapid, bactericidal activity. S-F and S-D both showed approximately 40-fold greater selectivity for prokaryotic than eukaryotic ribosomes in in vitro translation assays. There was >10-fold in vitro selectivity of S-F compared with S-D on LLC-PK1 and J774 cell lines. In vivo, delayed renal toxicity occurred at >10-fold higher doses of S-F compared with S-D. Substantial treatment effect of S-F in the murine thigh model was observed against the otherwise pandrug-resistant, NDM-1-expressing Klebsiella pneumoniae Nevada strain at dosing levels without observable or minimal toxicity. Resistance mutations obtained in single ribosomal operon E. coli identify novel interactions with 16S rRNA helix 34, i.e., C1504A and A1196G/C conferred high level resistance to nourseothricin. Based on promising, unique activity, we suggest that the streptothricin scaffold deserves further pre-clinical exploration as a potential therapeutic for the treatment of CRE and potentially other multidrug-resistant, gram-negative pathogens.

IMPORTANCEStreptothricins are a historic class of antibiotics discovered by Waksman and colleagues in the 1940s. Toxicities associated with the streptothricin natural product mixture, also known as nourseothricin, discouraged further development. However, we found that a component of nourseothricin, streptothricin-F, retained potent activity against contemporary carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales with significant selectivity in in vitro and in vivo assays. This included demonstration of rapid bactericidal activity in vitro and substantial therapeutic effect in the murine thigh model against a pandrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolate at non-toxic concentrations. Through resistance mutation analysis, we identified helix 34 of 16S rRNA in the prokaryotic ribosome, and specifically bases C1054 and A1196, as critical for streptothricins activity. The mechanism of action is distinct from other known translation inhibitors. Based on promising and unique activity, we believe the streptothricin scaffold deserves further pre-clinical exploration as a potential therapeutic for the treatment of CRE and potentially other multidrug-resistant, Gram-negative pathogens.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smith, K. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, Y.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Green, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dowgiallo, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiaraviglio, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Truelson, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zulauf, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manetsch, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirby, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.14.448463</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Profiling the in vitro and in vivo activity of streptothricin-F against carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales: a historic scaffold with a novel mechanism of action]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.16.448761v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spatial structure, phase, and the contrast of natural images 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.16.448761v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The sensitivity of the human visual system is thought to be shaped by environmental statistics. A major endeavour in vision science, therefore, is to uncover the image statistics that predict perceptual and cognitive function. When searching for targets in natural images, for example, it has recently been proposed that target detection is inversely related to the spatial similarity of the target to its local background. We tested this hypothesis by measuring observers sensitivity to targets that were blended with natural image backgrounds. Targets were designed to have a spatial structure that was either similar or dissimilar to the background. Contrary to masking from similarity, we found that observers were most sensitive to targets that were most similar to their backgrounds. We hypothesised that a coincidence of phase-alignment between target and background results in a local contrast signal that facilitates detection when target-background similarity is high. We confirmed this prediction in a second experiment. Indeed, we show that, by solely manipulating the phase of a target relative to its background, the target can be rendered easily visible or undetectable. Our study thus reveals that, in addition to its structural similarity, the phase of the target relative to the background must be considered when predicting detection sensitivity in natural images.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rideaux, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>West, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mattingley, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrison, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.16.448761</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spatial structure, phase, and the contrast of natural images]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.18.448998v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Single domain antibodies against enteric pathogen virulence factors are active as curli fiber fusions on probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.18.448998v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Enteric microbial pathogens, including Escherichia coli, Shigella and Cryptosporidium species, take a particularly heavy toll in low-income countries and are highly associated with infant mortality. We describe here a means to display anti-infective agents on the surface of a probiotic bacterium. Because of their stability and versatility, VHHs, the variable domains of camelid heavy-chain-only antibodies, have potential as components of novel agents to treat or prevent enteric infectious disease. We isolated and characterized VHHs targeting several enteropathogenic Escherichia.coli (EPEC) virulence factors: flagellin (Fla), which is required for bacterial motility and promotes colonization; both intimin and the translocated intimin receptor (Tir), which together play key roles in attachment to enterocytes; and E. coli secreted protein A (EspA), an essential component of the type III secretion system (T3SS) that is required for virulence. Several VHHs that recognize Fla, intimin, or Tir blocked function in vitro. The probiotic strain E. coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) produces on the bacterial surface curli fibers, which are the major proteinaceous component of E. coli biofilms. A subset of Fla-, intimin-, or Tir-binding VHHs, as well as VHHs that recognize either a T3SS of another important bacterial pathogen (Shigella flexneri), a soluble bacterial toxin (Shiga toxin or Clostridioides difficile toxin TcdA), or a major surface antigen of an important eucaryotic pathogen (Cryptosporidium parvum) were fused to CsgA, the major curli fiber subunit. Scanning electron micrographs indicated CsgA-VHH fusions were assembled into curli fibers on the EcN surface, and Congo Red binding indicated that these recombinant curli fibers were produced at high levels. Ectopic production of these VHHs conferred on EcN the cognate binding activity and, in the case of anti-Shiga toxin, was neutralizing. Taken together, these results demonstrate the potential of the curli-based pathogen sequestration strategy described herein and contribute to the development of novel VHH-based gut therapeutics.

Author SummaryEnteric pathogens are the causative agents of diarrheal disease - a leading cause of infant morbidity and mortality worldwide. While treatment and prevention options such as drugs or vaccines exist for some pathogens, their efficacy and availability are often limited. New therapeutic strategies are therefore needed, especially inexpensive agents in low-income countries where enteric disease burdens are highest. One promising avenue for novel treatments uses VHHs - highly stable, well-expressed, antibody domains derived from camelid species such as llamas and alpacas. The small size, high stability and simple structure of these antibody fragments enables their streamlined production by bacteria such as E. coli, potentially reducing cost and improving scalability. In this work, we describe the development of VHHs targeting multiple virulence factor proteins of pathogenic E. coli and other leading causes of diarrheal disease. These VHHs provide new tools for the research community and may serve as promising components of agents that prevent or treat pathogen infections. Towards that goal, we engineered a novel system in which the probiotic, mucus-establishing bacterial strain E. coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) is used to express and display VHHs at high density on its surface. By demonstrating the ability of these engineered EcN to bind to pathogens, we provide a first step toward using such probiotics as a cheap, simple, and effective treatment for enteric pathogen infections.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gelfat, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aqeel, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tremblay, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaskiewicz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shrestha, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Magoun, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheoran, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bedenice, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giem, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manjula-Basavanna, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osbourne, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tzipori, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoemaker, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leong, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.18.448998</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Single domain antibodies against enteric pathogen virulence factors are active as curli fiber fusions on probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.21.449285v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Immunosuppressive traits of the hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal phenotype 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.21.449285v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent preclinical and clinical data suggests enhanced metastatic fitness of hybrid epithelial/ mesenchymal (E/M) phenotypes, but mechanistic details regarding their survival strategies during metastasis remain unclear. Here, we investigate immune-evasive strategies of hybrid E/M states. We construct and simulate the dynamics of a minimalistic regulatory network encompassing the known associations among regulators of EMT (epithelial-mesenchymal transition) and PD-L1, an established immune-suppressor. Our model simulations, integrated with single-cell and bulk RNA-seq data analysis, elucidate that hybrid E/M cells can have high levels of PD-L1, similar to those seen in cells with a full EMT phenotype, thus obviating the need for cancer cells to undergo a full EMT to be immune-evasive. Specifically, in breast cancer, we show the co-existence of hybrid E/M phenotypes, enhanced resistance to anti-estrogen therapy and increased PD-L1 levels. Our results underscore how the emergent dynamics of interconnected regulatory networks can coordinate different axes of cellular fitness during metastasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nayak, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hari, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mandal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kishore, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.21.449285</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Immunosuppressive traits of the hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal phenotype]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.21.449295v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Voltage-driven polyelectrolyte complexation inside a nanopore 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.21.449295v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We have investigated how a pair of oppositely charged macromolecules can be driven by an electric field to form a polyelectrolyte complex inside a nanopore. To observe and isolate an individual complex pair, a model protein nanopore, embedded in artificial phospholipid membrane, allowing compartmentalization (cis/trans) is employed. A polyanion in the cis and a polycation in the trans compartments are subjected to electrophoretic capture by the pore. We find that the measured ionic current across the pore has a distinguishable signature of complex formation, which is different from the signature of the passage of individual molecules through the pore. The ionic current signature allows us to detect the interaction between the two oppositely charged macromolecules and thus, enables us to measure the lifetime of the complex inside the nanopore. After showing that we can isolate a complex pair in the nanopore, we studied the effects of molecular identity on the nature of interaction in different complex pairs. In contrast to the irreversible conductance state of the alpha-hemolysin (HL) channel in the complexation of poly-styrene-sulfonate (PSS) and poly-L-lysine (PLL), a reversible conductance state is observed during complexation between single stranded DNA (ssDNA) and PLL. This suggests that there is a weak interaction between ssDNA and PLL, when compared to the interaction in a PSS-PLL complex. Analysis of the PSS-PLL complexation events and its lifetime inside the nanopore supports a four step-mechanism: (i) The polyanion is captured by the pore, (ii) the polyanion starts threading through the pore. (iii) The polycation is captured, a complex pair is formed in the pore, and the polyanion slides along the polycation. (iv) The complex pair can be pulled through the pore into the trans compartment or it can dissociate. Additionally, we have developed a simple theoretical model, which describes the lifetime of the complex inside the pore. The observed reversible two-state conductance across HL channel during ssDNA-PLL complexation, is described as the binding/unbinding of PLL during the translocation of ssDNA. This enables us to evaluate the apparent rate constants for association/dissociation and equilibrium dissociation constants for the interaction of PLL with ssDNA. This work throws light on the behavior of polyelectrolyte complexes in an electric field and enhances our understanding of the electrical aspects of inter-macromolecular interactions, which plays an extremely important role in the organization of macromolecules in the crowded and confined cellular environment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Muthukumar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tripathi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeon, B.-j.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.21.449295</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Voltage-driven polyelectrolyte complexation inside a nanopore]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.21.449351v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Classical swine fever virus NS5A inhibits NF-κB signaling by targeting NEMO 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.21.449351v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The NS5A non-structural protein of classical swine fever virus (CSFV) is a multifunctional protein involved in viral genomic replication, protein translation and regulation of cellular signaling pathways, and assembly of infectious virus particles. Previous report showed that NS5A inhibited nuclear factor kappa B (NF-{kappa}B) signaling induced by poly(I:C); however, the mechanism was not elucidated. Here, we report that NS5A interacts with NF-{kappa}B essential modulator (NEMO),a regulatory subunit of the I{kappa}B kinase (IKK) complex, and that the zinc finger domain of NEMO essential for NEMO ubiquitination and IKK activation is required for the interaction of NEMO with NS5A. Viral infection or NS5A expression by itself reduced the protein level of NEMO. Mechanistic analysis revealed that NS5A mediated proteasomal degradation of NEMO. Ubiquitination assay showed that NS5A induced K27-but not K48-linked polyubiquitination of NEMO. In addition, NS5A blocked k63-linked polyubiquitination of NEMO, thereby inhibiting activation of IKK and NF-{kappa}B. These findings indicate that NS5A inhibits NF-{kappa}B signaling by mediating proteasomal degradation of NEMO and blocking k63-linked polyubiquitination of NEMO, thereby revealing a novel mechanism by which CSFV inhibits host innate immunity.

ImportanceClassical swine fever (CSF) is a economically important swine viral disease leading to hemorrhagic fever and immuno-suppression. In order to successfully infect and replicate in a host cell, viruses have evolved various strategies to antagonize host innate immunity. It is known that CSFV non-structural protein Npro interacts with interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) and mediates its proteasomal degradation, thereby inhibiting the production of type I interferon. However, no other mechanism by which CSFV antagonizes host innate immunity has so far been reported. Here, we show that NS5A inhibits NF-{kappa}B signaling by mediating proteasomal degradation of NEMO and by blocking k63-linked polyubiquitination of NEMO, thereby revealing a novel mechanism by which CSFV antagonizes host innate immunity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.21.449351</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Classical swine fever virus NS5A inhibits NF-κB signaling by targeting NEMO]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.23.449327v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Regulation of GTPase function by autophosphorylation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.23.449327v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A unifying feature of the RAS superfamily is a functionally conserved GTPase cycle that proteins use to transition between active and inactive states. Here, we demonstrate that active site autophosphorylation of some small GTPases is an intrinsic regulatory mechanism that reduces nucleotide hydrolysis and enhances nucleotide exchange, thus altering the on/off switch that forms the basis for their signaling functions. Using x-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, biolayer interferometry binding assays, and molecular dynamics on autophosphorylated mutants of H-RAS and K-RAS, we show that phosphoryl transfer from GTP requires dynamic movement of the switch II domain and that autophosphorylation promotes nucleotide exchange by opening of the active site and extraction of the stabilizing Mg. Finally, we demonstrate that autophosphorylated K-RAS exhibits altered effector interactions, including a reduced affinity for RAF proteins. Thus, autophosphorylation leads to altered active site dynamics and effector interaction properties, creating a pool of GTPases that are functionally distinct from the non-phosphorylated counterpart.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Johnson, C. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seo, H.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Terrell, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>KleinJan, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gebregiworgis, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gasmi-Seabrook, G. M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geffken, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lakhani, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popow, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paulo, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mattos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ikura, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morrison, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhe-Paganon, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haigis, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.23.449327</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Regulation of GTPase function by autophosphorylation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.23.449516v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Protein crosslinking as a therapeutic strategy for SOD1-related ALS 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.23.449516v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutations in the gene encoding Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) cause a subset of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (fALS). One effect of these mutations is that SOD1, which is normally a stable dimer, dissociates into toxic monomers. Considerable research efforts have been devoted to developing compounds that stabilize the dimer of fALS SOD1 variants, but these have not yet resulted in an approved drug. We demonstrate that a cyclic thiosulfinate cross-linker can stabilize prevalent disease-causing SOD1 variants. The degree of stabilization afforded by cyclic thiosulfinates (up to 24 {degrees}C) is unprecedented. We show this compound works rapidly in vivo with a half-life of ~3 days. The efficacy, low toxicity, and pharmacodynamics of cross-linker mediated stabilization make it a promising therapeutic approach for SOD1-related fALS.

Significance statementCyclic thiosulfinate S-XL6 enables the kinetic stabilization of ALS-associated SOD1 variants, in vivo.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hossain, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sarin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donnelly, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salisbury, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conway, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winters, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alam, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sivasankar, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ponmudiyan, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gawde, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kannapadi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auclair, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makowski, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ringe, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ondrechen, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manetsch, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agar, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.23.449516</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Protein crosslinking as a therapeutic strategy for SOD1-related ALS]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.24.449816v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Protection of the prodomain 1-helix correlates with latency in the transforming growth factor- family 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.24.449816v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The 33 members of the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-{beta}) family are fundamentally important for organismal development and homeostasis. Family members are synthesized and secreted as pro-complexes of prodomains that are non-covalently bound to the growth factor (GF). The pro-complexes of some members are latent and require activation steps to release the GF for signaling. Why some members are latent while others are non-latent is incompletely understood, but crystal structures and hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX) of four family members have begun to unravel how latency is regulated. Here, we extend this understanding by comparing pro-complex conformation in negative stain EM (nsEM) and HDX of ActA, BMP7, BMP9, BMP10, GDF8, TGF-{beta}1, and TGF-{beta}2. nsEM revealed that family members varied in either adopting cross-armed, open-armed, or V-armed configurations. Latency was achieved in both cross-armed and V-armed but not open-armed conformations. HDX revealed remarkably varying patterns of exchange between family members, consistent with large prodomain sequence divergence. We observed a strong correlation between latency and protection of the prodomain 1-helix from exchange, which in latent members coincided with greater buried surface area of the 1-helix and more hydrogen and cation-pi bonds from the prodomain fastener and GF to the 1-helix. Strong sequence conservation of the 1-helix and fastener only in latent members suggests that similar interactions are conserved and sufficient to confer latency. Moreover, most members exhibited rapid exchange in the unstructured "association region" at the prodomain N-terminus, highlighting their availability for interacting with factors that may regulate latency and extracellular storage.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Le, V. Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iacob, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tian, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Toohey, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Springer, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.24.449816</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Protection of the prodomain 1-helix correlates with latency in the transforming growth factor- family]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.25.448160v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Diffuse ions coordinate dynamics in a ribonucleoprotein assembly 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.25.448160v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Proper ionic concentrations are required for the functional dynamics of RNA and ribonucleoprotein (RNP) assemblies. While experimental and computational techniques have provided many insights into the properties of chelated ions, less is known about the energetic contributions of diffuse ions to large-scale conformational rearrangements. To address this, we present a model that is designed to quantify the influence of diffuse monovalent and divalent ions on the dynamics of biomolecular assemblies. This model employs all-atom (non-H) resolution and explicit ions, where effective potentials account for hydration effects. We first show that the model accurately predicts the number of excess Mg2+ ions for prototypical RNA systems, at a level comparable to modern coarse-grained models. We then apply the model to a complete ribosome and show how the balance between diffuse Mg2+ and K+ ions can control the dynamics of tRNA molecules during translation. The model predicts differential effects of diffuse ions on the free-energy barrier associated with tRNA entry and the energy of tRNA binding to the ribosome. Together, this analysis reveals the direct impact of diffuse ions on the dynamics of an RNP assembly.

TOC Graphic

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=111 SRC="FIGDIR/small/448160v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohanty, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.25.448160</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Diffuse ions coordinate dynamics in a ribonucleoprotein assembly]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.25.449819v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cerebello-cerebral Functional Connectivity Networks in Major Depressive Disorder: A CAN-BIND-1 Study Report 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.25.449819v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveNeuroimaging studies have demonstrated aberrant structure and function of the "cognitive-affective cerebellum" in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), although the specific role of the cerebello-cerebral circuitry in this population remains largely uninvestigated. The objective of this study was to delineate the role of cerebellar functional networks in depression.

MethodsA total of 308 unmedicated participants completed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, of which 247 (148 MDD; 99 Healthy Controls, HC) were suitable for this study. Seed-based resting-state functional connectivity (RsFc) analysis was performed using three cerebellar regions of interest (ROIs): ROI1 corresponded to default mode network (DMN) / inattentive processing; ROI2 corresponded to attentional networks including frontoparietal, dorsal attention, and ventral attention; ROI3 corresponded to motor processing. These ROIs were delineated based on prior functional gradient analyses of the cerebellum. A general linear model was used to perform within-group and between-group comparisons.

ResultsIn comparison to HC, participants with MDD displayed increased RsFc within the cerebello-cerebral DMN (ROI1) and significantly elevated RsFc between the cerebellar ROI1 and bilateral angular gyrus at a voxel threshold (p < 0.001, two-tailed) and at a cluster level (p < 0.05, FDR-corrected). Group differences were non-significant for ROI2 and ROI3.

ConclusionsThese results contribute to the development of a systems neuroscience approach to the diagnosis and treatment of MDD. Specifically, our findings confirm previously reported associations between MDD, DMN, and cerebellum, and highlight the promising role of these functional and anatomical locations for the development of novel imaging-based biomarkers and targets for neuromodulation therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Anteraper, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guell, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Y. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raya, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Demchenko, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Churchill, N. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frey, B. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hassel, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lam, R. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MacQueen, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milev, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schweizer, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strother, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kennedy, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhat, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>The CAN-BIND Investigator Team,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.25.449819</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cerebello-cerebral Functional Connectivity Networks in Major Depressive Disorder: A CAN-BIND-1 Study Report]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.28.450034v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MCX Cloud - a modern, scalable, high-performance and in-browser Monte Carlo simulation platform with cloud computing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.28.450034v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceDespite the ample progress made towards faster and more accurate Monte Carlo (MC) simulation tools over the past decade, the limited usability and accessibility of these advanced modeling tools remain key barriers towards widespread use among the broad user community.

AimAn open-source, high-performance, web-based MC simulator that builds upon modern cloud computing architectures is highly desirable to deliver state-of-the-art MC simulations and hardware acceleration to general users without the need for special hardware installation and optimization.

ApproachWe have developed a configuration-free, in-browser 3-D MC simulation platform - MCX Cloud - built upon an array of robust and modern technologies, including a Docker Swarm-based cloud-computing backend and a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) that supports in-browser 3-D visualization, asynchronous data communication, and automatic data validation via JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) schemas.

ResultsThe front-end of the MCX Cloud platform offers an intuitive simulation design, fast 3-D data rendering, and convenient simulation sharing. The Docker Swarm container orchestration backend is highly scalable and can support high-demand GPU MC simulations using Monte Carlo eXtreme (MCX) over a dynamically expandable virtual cluster.

ConclusionMCX Cloud makes fast, scalable, and feature-rich MC simulations readily available to all biophotonics researchers without overhead. It is fully open-source and can be freely accessed at http://mcx.space/cloud.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.28.450034</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MCX Cloud - a modern, scalable, high-performance and in-browser Monte Carlo simulation platform with cloud computing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.28.450265v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Using diffusion MRI data acquired with ultra-high gradients to improve tractography in routine-quality data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.28.450265v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The development of scanners with ultra-high gradients, spearheaded by the Human Connectome Project, has led to dramatic improvements in the spatial, angular, and diffusion resolution that is feasible for in vivo diffusion MRI acquisitions. The improved quality of the data can be exploited to achieve higher accuracy in the inference of both microstructural and macrostructural anatomy. However, such high-quality data can only be acquired on a handful of Connectom MRI scanners worldwide, while remaining prohibitive in clinical settings because of the constraints imposed by hardware and scanning time. In this study, we first update the classical protocols for tractography-based, manual annotation of major white-matter pathways, to adapt them to the much greater volume and variability of the streamlines that can be produced from todays state-of-the-art diffusion MRI data. We then use these protocols to annotate 42 major pathways manually in data from a Connectom scanner. Finally, we show that, when we use these manually annotated pathways as training data for global probabilistic tractography with anatomical neighborhood priors, we can perform highly accurate, automated reconstruction of the same pathways in much lower-quality, more widely available diffusion MRI data. The outcomes of this work include both a new, comprehensive atlas of WM pathways from Connectom data, and an updated version of our tractography toolbox, TRActs Constrained by UnderLying Anatomy (TRACULA), which is trained on data from this atlas. Both the atlas and TRACULA are distributed publicly as part of FreeSurfer. We present the first comprehensive comparison of TRACULA to the more conventional, multi-region-of-interest approach to automated tractography, and the first demonstration of training TRACULA on high-quality, Connectom data to benefit studies that use more modest acquisition protocols.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maffei, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Planich, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramprasad, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ravi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trainor, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Urban, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hofmann, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pizzagalli, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auerbach, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabrieli, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greve, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haber, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yendiki, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.28.450265</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Using diffusion MRI data acquired with ultra-high gradients to improve tractography in routine-quality data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.29.450249v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Design, synthesis, and characterization of mG2P026 as a high contrast PET imaging ligand for metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.29.450249v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
An array of triazolopyridines based on JNJ-46356479 (6) were synthesized as potential PET imaging ligands for metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGluR2) in the brain. The selected candidates 8-11 featured an enhanced positive allosteric modulator (PAM) activity (37-fold max.) and an apparent mGluR2 agonist activity (25-fold max.) compared to compound 6. Radiolabeling of compounds 8 and 9 (also named mG2P026) was achieved via the Cu(I)-mediated radiofluorination in the automated TRACERLabTM FXF-N platform. Both [18F]8 and [18F]9 were obtained with satisfactory radiochemical yields (> 5%, non-decay corrected), high molar activity (> 180 GBq/mol), and excellent chemical and radiochemical purities (> 98%). Preliminary characterization of [18F]8 and [18F]9 in rats confirmed their excellent brain permeability with [18F]9 showing better brain heterogeneity and favorable binding kinetics. Pretreatment with different classes of PAMs enhanced the radioactivity uptake for both [18F]8 and [18F]9 at the regions of interest by 20.3-40.9% and 16.7-81.6%, respectively, due to their pharmacological effects. Further evaluation of [18F]9 in a nonhuman primate confirmed its superior brain heterogeneity in mapping mGlu2 receptors and its higher specific binding than [18F]6. Pretreatment with 0.5 mg/kg BINA led (2) to an enhanced brain uptake of [18F]9 by 3% in high tracer uptake regions that was consistent with the rat studies. Therefore, [18F]9 has the potential to be translated for human studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yuan, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhaynaut, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guehl, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Afshar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huynh, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moon, S.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iyengar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ondrechen, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>El Fakhri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Normandin, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brownell, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.29.450249</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Design, synthesis, and characterization of mG2P026 as a high contrast PET imaging ligand for metabotropic glutamate receptor 2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.29.450413v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Synthesis and characterization of 5-(2-fluoro-4-pyridine-7-carboxamide as a PET imaging ligand for metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.29.450413v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGluR2) is a therapeutic target for the treatment of several neuropsychiatric disorders and conditions. The role of mGluR2 function in etiology could be unveiled by in vivo imaging using positron emission tomography (PET). In this regard, 5-(2- fluoro-4-[11C]methoxyphenyl)-2,2-dimethyl-3,4-dihydro-2H-pyrano[2,3-b]pyridine-7- carboxamide ([11C]13), a potent negative allosteric modulator (NAM), was developed to support this endeavor. Radioligand [11C]13 was synthesized via the O-[11C]methylation of phenol 24 with a high molar activity of 212 {+/-} 76 GBq/{micro}mol (n = 5) and excellent radiochemical purity (> 99%). PET imaging of [11C]13 in rats demonstrated its superior brain heterogeneity, particularly in the regions of striatum, thalamus, hippocampus, and cortex. Accumulation of [11C]13 in these regions of interest (ROIs) was reduced with pretreatment of mGluR2 NAMs, VU6001966 (9) and MNI-137 (26), the extent of which revealed a time-dependent drug effect of the blocking agents. In a nonhuman primate, [11C]13 selectively accumulated in mGluR2-rich regions, especially in different cortical areas, putamen, thalamus, and hippocampus, and resulted in high-contrast brain images. The regional total volume of distribution (VT) estimates of [11C]13 decreased by 14% after the pretreatment with 9. Therefore, [11C]13 is a potential candidate for translational PET imaging studies of mGluR2 function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yuan, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhaynaut, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guehl, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huynh, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iyengar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Afshar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moon, S.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ondrechen, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoup, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>El Fakhri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Normandin, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brownell, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.29.450413</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Synthesis and characterization of 5-(2-fluoro-4-pyridine-7-carboxamide as a PET imaging ligand for metabotropic glutamate receptor 2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.30.450556v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Parametric modulators of sex-biased conditioned fear responding 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.30.450556v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pavlovian fear conditioning is a widely used behavioral paradigm for studying associative learning in rodents. Despite early recognition that subjects may engage in a variety of both conditioned and unconditioned responses, the last several decades have seen the field narrow its focus to measure freezing as the sole indicator of conditioned fear. We previously reported that female rats were more likely than males to engage in darting, an escape-like conditioned response that is associated with heightened shock reactivity. To determine how experimental parameters contribute to the frequency of darting in both males and females, we manipulated factors such as chamber size, shock intensity, and number of trials. To better capture fear-related behavioral repertoires in our animals, we developed ScaredyRat, an open-source custom Python tool that analyzes Noldus Ethovision-generated raw data files to identify Darters and quantify both conditioned and unconditioned responses. We find that like freezing, conditioned darting occurrences scale with experimental alterations. While most darting occurs in females, we find that with an extended training protocol, darting can emerge in males as well. Collectively, our data suggest that darting reflects a behavioral switch in conditioned responding that is a product of both an individual animals sex, shock reactivity, and experimental parameters, underscoring the need for careful consideration of sex as a biological variable in classic learning paradigms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trettel, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wasielewski, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huckleberry, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fanikos, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golden, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shansky, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-06-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.06.30.450556</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Parametric modulators of sex-biased conditioned fear responding]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-06-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.01.450732v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High-density transposon mutagenesis in Mycobacterium abscessus identifies an essential penicillin-binding lipo-protein (PBP-lipo) involved in septal peptidoglycan synthesis and antibiotic sensitivity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.01.450732v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mycobacterium abscessus (Mab) is a rapidly growing non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) that causes a wide range of infections. Treatment of Mab infections is difficult because the bacterium is intrinsically resistant to many classes of antibiotics. Developing new and effective treatments against Mab requires a better understanding of the unique vulnerabilities that can be targeted for future drug development. To achieve this, we identified essential genes in Mab by conducting transposon-sequencing (TnSeq) on the reference Mab strain ATCC 19977. We generated [~]51,000 unique transposon mutants and used this high-density library to identify 362 essential genes for in vitro growth. To investigate species-specific vulnerabilities in Mab, we further characterized MAB_3167c, a predicted penicillin-binding-lipoprotein (PBP-lipo) that is essential in Mab and non-essential in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). We found that PBP-lipo primarily localizes to the subpolar region and later to the septum as cells prepare to divide. Depletion of Mab PBP-lipo causes cells to elongate, develop ectopic branches, and form multiple septa. Knockdown of PBP-lipo along with PbpB, DacB1, and a carboxypeptidase, MAB_0519 lead to synergistic growth arrest. In contrast, these genetic interactions were absent in the Mtb model organism, Mycobacterium smegmatis, indicating that the PBP-lipo homologs in the two species exist in distinct genetic networks. Finally, repressing PBP-lipo sensitized the reference strain and 11 Mab clinical isolates to several classes of antibiotics, including the {beta}-lactams, ampicillin and amoxicillin by greater than 128-fold. Altogether, this study presents PBP-lipo as a key enzyme to study Mab specific processes in cell wall synthesis and importantly positions PBP-lipo as an attractive drug target to treat Mab infections.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Akusobi, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benghomari, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wolf, I. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singhvi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ioerger, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubin, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.01.450732</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High-density transposon mutagenesis in Mycobacterium abscessus identifies an essential penicillin-binding lipo-protein (PBP-lipo) involved in septal peptidoglycan synthesis and antibiotic sensitivity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.02.450867v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Music-Based Intervention Connects Auditory and Reward Systems 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.02.450867v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Listening to pleasurable music is known to engage the brains reward system. This has motivated many cognitive-behavioral interventions for healthy aging, but little is known about the effects of music-based intervention (MBI) on activity and connectivity of the brains auditory and reward systems. Here we show preliminary evidence that brain network connectivity can change after receptive MBI in cognitively unimpaired older adults. Using a combination of whole-brain regression, seed-based connectivity analysis, and representational similarity analysis (RSA), we examined fMRI responses during music listening in older adults before and after an eight-week personalized MBI. Participants rated self-selected and researcher-selected musical excerpts on liking and familiarity. Parametric effects of liking, familiarity, and selection showed simultaneous activation in auditory, reward, and default mode network (DMN) areas. Functional connectivity within and between auditory and reward networks was modulated by participant liking and familiarity ratings. RSA showed significant representations of selection and novelty at both time-points, and an increase in striatal representation of musical stimuli following intervention. An exploratory seed-based connectivity analysis comparing pre- and post-intervention showed significant increase in functional connectivity between auditory regions and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Taken together, results show how regular music listening can provide an auditory channel towards the mPFC, thus offering a potential neural mechanism for MBI supporting healthy aging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Quinci, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Belden, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goutama, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gong, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hanser, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donovan, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geddes, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.02.450867</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Music-Based Intervention Connects Auditory and Reward Systems]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.02.450940v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
HAPPILEE: The Harvard Automated Processing Pipeline In Low Electrode Electroencephalography, a standardized software for low density EEG and ERP data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.02.450940v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Low-density Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings (e.g. fewer than 32 electrodes) are widely-used in research and clinical practice and enable scalable brain function measurement across a variety of settings and populations. Though a number of automated pipelines have recently been proposed to standardize and optimize EEG preprocessing for high-density systems with state-of-the-art methods, few solutions have emerged that are compatible with low-density systems. However, low-density data often include long recording times and/or large sample sizes that would benefit from similar standardization and automation with contemporary methods. To address this need, we propose the HAPPE In Low Electrode Electroencephalography (HAPPILEE) pipeline as a standardized, automated pipeline optimized for EEG recordings with low density channel layouts of any size. HAPPILEE processes task-free (e.g. resting-state) and task-related EEG, and event-related potential (ERP) data, from raw files through a series of processing steps including filtering, line noise reduction, bad channel detection, artifact rejection from continuous data, segmentation, and bad segment rejection that have all been optimized for low density data. HAPPILEE also includes post-processing reports of data and pipeline quality metrics to facilitate the evaluation and reporting of data quality and processing-related changes to the data in a standardized manner. We describe multiple approaches with both recorded and simulated EEG data to optimize and validate pipeline performance. The HAPPILEE pipeline is freely available as part of HAPPE 2.0 software under the terms of the GNU General Public License at: https://github.com/PINE-Lab/HAPPE.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lopez, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monachino, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morales, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leach, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowers, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabard-Durnam, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.02.450940</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[HAPPILEE: The Harvard Automated Processing Pipeline In Low Electrode Electroencephalography, a standardized software for low density EEG and ERP data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.02.450946v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The HAPPE plus Event-Related (HAPPE+ER) Software: A Standardized Processing Pipeline for Event-Related Potential Analyses 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.02.450946v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Event-Related Potential (ERP) designs are a common method for interrogating neurocognitive function with electroencephalography (EEG). However, the gold standard of preprocessing ERP data is manual-editing - a subjective, time-consuming processes. A number of automated pipelines have recently been created to address the need for standardization, automation, and quantification of EEG data processing; however, few are optimized for ERP analyses (especially in developmental or clinical populations). To fill this need, we propose and validate the HAPPE plus Event-Related (HAPPE+ER) software, a standardized and automated processing pipeline optimized for ERP analyses in EEG data. HAPPE+ER processes event- related potential data from raw files through a series of filtering, line noise reduction, bad channel detection, artifact rejection from continuous data, segmentation, and bad segment rejection methods. HAPPE+ER also includes post-processing reports of both data quality and pipeline quality metrics to facilitate the evaluation and reporting of data processing in a standardized manner. Finally, HAPPE+ER includes a post-processing script to facilitate generating ERP figures and measures for statistical analysis. We describe multiple approaches with both adult and developmental data to optimize and validate pipeline performance. HAPPE+ER software is freely available under the terms of GNU General Public License at https://github.com/PINE-Lab/HAPPE.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Monachino, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pierce, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabard-durnam, l. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.02.450946</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The HAPPE plus Event-Related (HAPPE+ER) Software: A Standardized Processing Pipeline for Event-Related Potential Analyses]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.07.451411v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CAT, AGTR2, L-SIGN and DC-SIGN are potential receptors for the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into human cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.07.451411v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Since December 2019, the COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been widely spread all over the world. It is reported that SARS-CoV-2 infection affects a series of human tissues, including lung, gastrointestinal tract, kidney, etc. ACE2 has been identified as the primary receptor of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein. The relatively low expression level of this known receptor in the lungs, which is the predominantly infected organ in COVID-19, indicates that there may be some other co-receptors or alternative receptors of SARS-CoV-2 to work in coordination with ACE2. Here, we identified twenty-one candidate receptors of SARS-CoV-2, including ACE2-interactor proteins and SARS-CoV receptors. Then we investigated the protein expression levels of these twenty-one candidate receptors in different human tissues and found that five of which CAT, MME, L-SIGN, DC-SIGN, and AGTR2 were specifically expressed in SARS-CoV-2 affected tissues. Next, we performed molecular simulations of the above five candidate receptors with SARS-CoV-2 S protein, and found that the binding affinities of CAT, AGTR2, L-SIGN and DC-SIGN to S protein were even higher than ACE2. Interestingly, we also observed that CAT and AGTR2 bound to S protein in different regions with ACE2 conformationally, suggesting that these two proteins are likely capable of the co-receptors of ACE2. Conclusively, we considered that CAT, AGTR2, L-SIGN and DC-SIGN were the potential receptors of SARS-CoV-2. Moreover, AGTR2 and DC-SIGN tend to be highly expressed in the lungs of smokers, which is consistent with clinical phenomena of COVID-19, and further confirmed our conclusion. Besides, we also predicted the binding hot spots for these putative protein-protein interactions, which would help develop drugs against SARS-CoV-2.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Guo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aziz, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.07.451411</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CAT, AGTR2, L-SIGN and DC-SIGN are potential receptors for the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into human cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.11.451960v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evaluating de novo assembly and binning strategies for time-series drinking water metagenomes. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.11.451960v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Reconstructing microbial genomes from metagenomic short-read data can be challenging due to the unknown and uneven complexity of microbial communities. This complexity encompasses highly diverse populations which often includes strain variants. Reconstructing high-quality genomes is a crucial part of the metagenomic workflow as subsequent ecological and metabolic inferences depend on their accuracy, quality, and completeness. In contrast to microbial communities in other ecosystems, there has been no systematic assessment of genome-centric metagenomic workflows for drinking water microbiomes. In this study, we assessed the performance of a combination of assembly and binning strategies for time-series drinking water metagenomes that were collected over a period of 6 months. The goal of this study was to identify the combination of assembly and binning approaches that results in high quality and quantity metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), representing most of the sequenced metagenome. Our findings suggest that the metaSPAdes co-assembly strategies had the best performance as they resulted in larger and less fragmented assemblies with at least 85% of the sequence data mapping to contigs greater than 1kbp. Furthermore, a combination of metaSPAdes co-assembly strategies and MetaBAT2 produced the highest number of medium-quality MAGs while capturing at least 70% of the metagenomes based on read recruitment. Utilizing different assembly/binning approaches also assist in the reconstruction of unique MAGs from closely related species that would have otherwise collapsed into a single MAG using a single workflow. Overall, our study suggests that leveraging multiple binning approaches with different metaSPAdes co-assembly strategies may be required to maximize the recovery of good-quality MAGs, which more accurately capture the microbial diversity of drinking water samples.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vosloo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rivera, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.11.451960</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evaluating de novo assembly and binning strategies for time-series drinking water metagenomes.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.13.452173v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Global change differentially modulates coral physiology and suggests future shifts in Caribbean reef assemblages 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.13.452173v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Global change driven by anthropogenic carbon emissions is altering ecosystems at unprecedented rates, especially coral reefs, whose symbiosis with algal endosymbionts ise particularly vulnerable to increasing ocean temperatures and altered carbonate chemistry. Here, we assess the physiological responses of the coral holobiont (animal host + algal symbiont) of three Caribbean coral species from two reef environments after exposure to simulated ocean warming (28, 31 {degrees}C), acidification (300 - 3290 atm), and the combination of stressors for 93 days. We used multidimensional analyses to assess how multiple coral holobiont physiological parameters respond to ocean acidification and warming. Our results demonstrate significantly diminishing holobiont physiology in S. siderea and P. astreoides in response to projected ocean acidification, while future warming elicited severe declines in P. strigosa. Offshore S. siderea fragments exhibited higher physiological plasticity than inshore counterparts, suggesting that this offshore population has the capacity to modulate their physiology in response to changing conditions, but at a cost to the holobiont. Plasticity of P. strigosa and P. astreoides was not clearly different between natal reef environments, however, temperature evoked a greater plastic response in both species. Interestingly, while these species exhibit unique physiological responses to ocean acidification and warming, when data from all three species are modeled together, convergent stress responses to these conditions are observed, highlighting the overall sensitivities of tropical corals to these stressors. Our results demonstrate that while ocean warming is a severe acute stressor that will have dire consequences for coral reefs globally, chronic exposure to acidification may also impact coral physiology to a greater extent than previously assumed. The variety of responses to global change we observe across species will likely manifest in altered Caribbean reef assemblages in the future.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bove, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davies, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ries, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Umbanhowar, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomasson, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farquhar, E. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCoppin, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castillo, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.13.452173</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Global change differentially modulates coral physiology and suggests future shifts in Caribbean reef assemblages]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.16.452743v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Allosteric control of Ubp6 and the proteasome via a bidirectional switch 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.16.452743v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The proteasome is the principal cellular protease, and recognizes target proteins that have been covalently marked by ubiquitin chains. The ubiquitin signal is subject to rapid editing at the proteasome, allowing it to reject substrates based on topological features of their attached ubiquitin chains. Editing is mediated by a key regulator of the proteasome, deubiquitinating enzyme Ubp6. The proteasome activates Ubp6, whereas Ubp6 inhibits the proteasome-both by deubiquitinating proteasome-bound ubiquitin conjugates, and through a noncatalytic effect that does not involve deubiquitination. We report mutants in both Ubp6 and proteasome subunit Rpt1 that abrogate Ubp6 activation. The Ubp6 mutations fall within its ILR element, defined here, which is conserved from yeast to mammals. The ILR is a component of the BL1 blocking loop, other parts of which obstruct ubiquitin access to the catalytic groove in free Ubp6. Rpt1 docking at the ILR opens the catalytic groove by rearranging not only BL1 but also a novel network of three directly interconnected active-site-blocking loops. Ubp6 activation and noncatalytic proteasome inhibition by Ubp6 are linked in that they were eliminated by the same Ubp6 and Rpt1 mutations. Ubp6 and ubiquitin together drive the proteasome into a unique conformational state associated with proteasome inhibition. Our results identify a multicomponent allosteric switch that exerts simultaneous control over the activity of both Ubp6 and the proteasome, and suggest that their active states are in general mutually exclusive. The findings lead to a new paradigm for allosteric control of deubiquitinating enzymes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hung, K. Y. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klumpe, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eisele, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elsasser, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tian, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moroco, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, T. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seibel, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Dalen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, X.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ovaa, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, B.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rudack, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sakata, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Finley, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.16.452743</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Allosteric control of Ubp6 and the proteasome via a bidirectional switch]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.29.454281v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Natural interploidy hybridization among the key taxa involved in the origin of horticultural chrysanthemums 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.29.454281v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Understanding hybridization and introgression between natural plant populations can give important insights into the origins of cultivated species. Recent studies suggest differences in ploidy may not create such strong reproductive barriers as once thought, and thus studies into cultivated origins should examine all co-occurring taxa, including those with contrasting ploidy levels. Here, we characterized hybridization between Chrysanthemum indicum, Chrysanthemum vestitum and Chrysanthemum vestitum var. latifolium, the most important wild species involved in the origins of cultivated chrysanthemums. We analysed population structure of 317 Chrysanthemum accessions based on 13 microsatellite markers and sequenced chloroplast trnL-trnF for a subset of 103 Chrysanthemum accessions. We identified three distinct genetic clusters, corresponding to the three taxa. We detected 20 hybrids between species of different ploidy levels, of which 19 were between C. indicum (4x) and C. vestitum (6x) and one was between C. indicum and C. vestitum var. latifolium (6x). Fourteen hybrids between C. indicum and C. vestitum were from one of the five study sites. Chrysanthemum vestitum and C. vestitum var. latifolium share only one chloroplast haplotype. The substantially different number of hybrids between hybridizing species was likely due to different levels of reproductive isolation coupled with environmental selection against hybrids. In addition, human activities may play a role in the different patterns of hybridization among populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Qi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Twyford, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Borrell, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.29.454281</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Natural interploidy hybridization among the key taxa involved in the origin of horticultural chrysanthemums]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.30.454451v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Brain structure and function predict adherence to an exercise intervention in older adults 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.30.454451v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Individualized and precision medicine approaches to exercise for cognitive and brain health in aging have the potential to improve intervention efficacy. Predicting adherence to an exercise intervention in older adults prior to its commencement will allow for adaptive and optimized approaches that could save time (no need to demonstrate failure before changing course) and money (cost of de-implementing approaches that do not work for certain individuals) which ultimately could improve health outcomes (e.g., preventative medicine approaches prior to the onset of symptoms). Individual differences in brain structure and function in older adults are potential proxies of brain and brain reserve or maintenance and may provide strong predictions of adherence. We hypothesized that brain-based measures would predict adherence to a six-month randomized controlled trial of exercise in older adults, alone and in combination with psychosocial, cognitive and health measures. In 131 older adults (aged 65.79 {+/-} 4.65 years, 63% female) we found, using regularized elastic net regression within a nested cross-validation framework, that brain structure (cortical thickness and cortical surface area) in somatosensory, inferior temporal, and inferior frontal regions and functional connectivity (degree count) in primary information processing (somatosensory, visual), executive control, default, and attentional networks, predicted exercise adherence (R2 = 0.15, p < 0.001). Traditional survey and clinical measures such as gait and walking self-efficacy, biological sex and perceived stress also predicted adherence (R2 = 0.06, p = 0.001) but a combined multimodal model achieved the highest predictive strength (R2 = 0.22, p <0.001). Neuroimaging features alone can predict adherence to a structured group-based exercise intervention in older adults which suggests there is substantial utility of these measures for future research into precision medicine approaches. The best performing model contained multimodal features suggesting that each modality provided independent relevant information in the prediction of exercise adherence.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Morris, T. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burzynska, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Voss, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fanning, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salerno, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prakash, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gothe, N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hillman, C. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McAuley, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kramer, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.30.454451</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Brain structure and function predict adherence to an exercise intervention in older adults]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.09.455649v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Moving translational mass spectrometry imaging towards transparent and reproducible data analyses: A case study of an urothelial cancer cohort analyzed in the Galaxy framework 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.09.455649v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundMass spectrometry imaging (MSI) derives spatial molecular distribution maps directly from clinical tissue specimens. This allows for spatial characterization of molecular compositions of different tissue types and tumor subtypes, which bears great potential for assisting pathologists with diagnostic decisions or personalized treatments. Unfortunately, progress in translational MSI is often hindered by insufficient quality control and lack of reproducible data analysis. Raw data and analysis scripts are rarely publicly shared. Here, we demonstrate the application of the Galaxy MSI tool set for the reproducible analysis of an urothelial carcinoma dataset.

MethodsTryptic peptides were imaged in a cohort of 39 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded human urothelial cancer tissue cores with a MALDI-TOF/TOF device. The complete data analysis was performed in a fully transparent and reproducible manner on the European Galaxy Server. Annotations of tumor and stroma were performed by a pathologist and transferred to the MSI data to allow for supervised classifications of tumor vs. stroma tissue areas as well as for muscle-infiltrating and non-muscle invasive urothelial carcinomas. For putative peptide identifications, m/z features were matched to the MSiMass list.

ResultsRigorous quality control in combination with careful pre-processing enabled reduction of m/z shifts and intensity batch effects. High classification accuracy was found for both, tumor vs. stroma and muscle-infiltrating vs. non-muscle invasive tumors. Some of the most discriminative m/z features for each condition could be assigned a putative identity: Stromal tissue was characterized by collagen type I peptides and tumor tissue by histone and heat shock protein beta-1 peptides.

Intermediate filaments such as cytokeratins and vimentin were discriminative between the tumors with different muscle-infiltration status. To make the study fully reproducible and to advocate the criteria of FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) research data, we share the raw data, spectra annotations as well as all Galaxy histories and workflows. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD026459 and Galaxy results via https://github.com/foellmelanie/Bladder_MSI_Manuscript_Galaxy_links.

ConclusionHere, we show that translational MSI data analysis in a fully transparent and reproducible manner is possible and we would like to encourage the community to join our efforts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Föll, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Volkmann, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Enderle-Ammour, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilhelm, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vitek, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bronsert, P. G. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schilling, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.09.455649</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Moving translational mass spectrometry imaging towards transparent and reproducible data analyses: A case study of an urothelial cancer cohort analyzed in the Galaxy framework]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.15.456423v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SMOG 2 and OpenSMOG: Extending the limits of structure-based models 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.15.456423v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Applying simulations with structure-based (G[o]-like) models has proven to be an effective strategy for investigating the factors that control biomolecular dynamics. The common element of these models is that some (or all) of the intra/inter-molecular inter-actions are explicitly defined to stabilize an experimentally-determined structure. To facilitate the development and application of this broad class of models, we previously released the SMOG 2 software package. This suite allows one to easily customize and distribute structure-based (i.e. SMOG) models for any type of polymer-ligand system. Since its original release, user feedback has driven the implementation of numerous enhancements. Here, we describe recent extensions to the software and demonstrate the capabilities of the most recent version, SMOG v2.4. Changes include new tools that aid user-defined customization of force fields, as well as an interface with the OpenMM simulation libraries (OpenSMOG v1.0). To illustrate the utility of these advances, we present several applications of SMOG2 and OpenSMOG, which include systems with millions of atoms, long polymers and explicit ions. We also highlight how one can incorporate non-structure-based (e.g. AMBER-based) energetics to define a hybrid class of models. The representative applications include large-scale rearrangements of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein, the HIV-1 capsid in the presence of explicit ions, and crystallographic lattices of ribosomes and proteins. In summary, SMOG 2 and OpenSMOG provide robust support for researchers who seek to apply structure-based models to large and/or intricate biomolecular systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Oliveira, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contessoto, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hassan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byju, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dodero Rojas, E. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohanty, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.15.456423</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SMOG 2 and OpenSMOG: Extending the limits of structure-based models]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.16.456477v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
AMPing up the search: An in silico approach to identifying Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) with potential anti-biofilm activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.16.456477v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antibiotic resistance is a public health threat, and the rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria, including those that form protective biofilms, further compounds this challenge. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been recognized for their anti-infective properties, including their ability to target processes important for biofilm formation. However, given the vast array of natural and synthetic AMPs, determining potential candidates for anti-biofilm testing is a significant challenge. In this study, we present an in silico approach, based on open-source tools, to identify AMPs with potential anti-biofilm activity. This approach is developed using the sortase-pilin machinery, important for adhesion and biofilm formation, of the multidrug-resistant, biofilm-forming pathogen C. striatum as the target. Using homology modeling, we modeled the structure of the C. striatum sortase C protein, resembling the semi-open lid conformation adopted during pilus biogenesis. Next, we developed a structural library of 5544 natural and synthetic AMPs from sequences in the DRAMP database. From this library, AMPs with known anti-Gram positive activity were filtered, and 100 select AMPs were evaluated for their ability to interact with the sortase C protein using in-silico molecular docking. Based on interacting residues and docking scores, we built a preference scale to categorize candidate AMPs in order of priority for future in vitro and in vivo biofilm studies. The considerations and challenges of our approach, and the resources developed, which includes a search-enabled repository of predicted AMP structures and protein-peptide interaction models relevant to biofilm studies (B-AMP), can be leveraged for similar investigations across other biofilm targets and biofilm-forming pathogens.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mhade, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panse, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tendulkar, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Awate, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kadam, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaushik, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.16.456477</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[AMPing up the search: An in silico approach to identifying Antimicrobial Peptides (AMPs) with potential anti-biofilm activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.457596v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Microbial dark carbon fixation fueled by nitrate enrichment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.457596v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Anthropogenic nitrate amendment to coastal marine sediments can increase rates of heterotrophic mineralization and autotrophic dark carbon fixation (DCF). DCF may be favored in sediments where organic matter is biologically unavailable, leading to a microbial community supported by chemoautotrophy. Niche partitioning among DCF communities and adaptations for nitrate metabolism in coastal marine sediments remain poorly characterized, especially within salt marshes. We used genome-resolved metagenomics, phylogenetics, and comparative genomics to characterize the potential niche space, phylogenetic relationships, and adaptations important to microbial communities within nitrate enriched sediment. We found that nitrate enrichment of sediment from discrete depths between 0-25 cm supported both heterotrophs and chemoautotrophs that use sulfur oxidizing denitrification to drive the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) or reductive TCA (rTCA) DCF pathways. Phylogenetic reconstruction indicated that the nitrate enriched community represented a small fraction of the phylogenetic diversity contained in coastal marine environmental genomes, while pangenomics revealed close evolutionary and functional relationships with DCF microbes in other oligotrophic environments. These results indicate that DCF can support coastal marine microbial communities and should be carefully considered when estimating the impact of nitrate on carbon cycling in these critical habitats.

ImportanceSalt marshes store carbon at one of the fastest rates of any blue carbon system and buffer coastal marine waters from eutrophication. Dark carbon fixation (DCF) conducted by microbes within the sediment can influence the carbon storage capacity, but little is known about the ecology or genomic potential of these organisms. Our study identifies a potential niche space for several functionally distinct groups of chemoautotrophs which primarily use sulfur oxidizing denitrification to fuel DCF under high nitrate concentrations. These findings fill an important gap in our understanding of microbial contributions to carbon storage within salt marsh sediments and how this critical blue carbon system responds to anthropogenic nitrate enrichment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vineis, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bulseco, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowen, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.24.457596</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Microbial dark carbon fixation fueled by nitrate enrichment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.28.458034v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Local mechanical stimuli shape tissue growth in vertebrate joint morphogenesis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.28.458034v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The correct formation of synovial joints is essential for proper motion throughout life. Movement-induced forces are critical to creating correctly shaped joints, but it is unclear how cells sense and respond to these mechanical cues. To determine how mechanical stimuli drive joint morphogenesis, we combined experiments on regenerating axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) forelimbs with a poroelastic model of bone rudiment growth. Animals either regrew forelimbs normally (control) or were injected with a TRPV4 agonist to impair chondrocyte mechanosensitivity during joint morphogenesis. We quantified growth and shape in regrown humeri from whole mount light sheet fluorescence images of the regenerated limbs. Results revealed statistically significant differences in morphology and cell proliferation between groups, indicating that mechanical stimuli play a role in the shaping of joints. We simulated local tissue growth in a finite element model with a biological contribution to growth proportional to chondrocyte density, and a mechanical contribution to growth proportional to fluid pressure. Computational predictions agreed with experimental outcomes, suggesting that interstitial pressure driven from cyclic mechanical stimuli promotes local tissue growth. Predictive computational models informed by experimental findings allow us to explore potential physical mechanisms involved in tissue growth to advance our understanding of the mechanobiology of joint morphogenesis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Comellas, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farkas, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kleinberg, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lloyd, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duerr, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munoz, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shefelbine, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.28.458034</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Local mechanical stimuli shape tissue growth in vertebrate joint morphogenesis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.30.458222v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Apropos of Universal Epitope Discovery for COVID-19 Vaccines: A Framework for Targeted Phage Display-Based Delivery and Integration of New Evaluation Tools 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.30.458222v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Targeted bacteriophage (phage) particles are potentially attractive yet inexpensive platforms for immunization. Herein, we describe targeted phage capsid display of an immunogenically relevant epitope of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein that is empirically conserved, likely due to the high mutational cost among all variants identified to date. This observation may herald an approach to developing vaccine candidates for broad-spectrum, towards universal, protection against multiple emergent variants of coronavirus that cause COVID-19.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Markosian, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Staquicini, D. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dogra, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dodero-Rojas, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, F. H. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, T. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contessoto, V. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Libutti, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cristini, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burley, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pasqualini, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arap, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-08-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.30.458222</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Apropos of Universal Epitope Discovery for COVID-19 Vaccines: A Framework for Targeted Phage Display-Based Delivery and Integration of New Evaluation Tools]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-08-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.31.457499v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Efficient ancestry and mutation simulation with msprime 1.0 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.31.457499v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Stochastic simulation is a key tool in population genetics, since the models involved are often analytically intractable and simulation is usually the only way of obtaining ground-truth data to evaluate inferences. Because of this necessity, a large number of specialised simulation programs have been developed, each filling a particular niche, but with largely overlapping functionality and a substantial duplication of effort. Here, we introduce msprime version 1.0, which efficiently implements ancestry and mutation simulations based on the succinct tree sequence data structure and tskit library. We summarise msprimes many features, and show that its performance is excellent, often many times faster and more memory efficient than specialised alternatives. These high-performance features have been thoroughly tested and validated, and built using a collaborative, open source development model, which reduces duplication of effort and promotes software quality via community engagement.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Baumdicker, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bisschop, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstein, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gower, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ragsdale, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsambos, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eldon, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ellerman, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Galloway, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gladstein, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gorjanc, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeffery, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kretzschmar, W. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lohse, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matschiner, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nelson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pope, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quinto-Cortes, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodrigues, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saunack, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sellinger, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thornton, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Kemenade, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wohns, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gravel, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kern, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koskela, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ralph, P. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelleher, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.08.31.457499</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Efficient ancestry and mutation simulation with msprime 1.0]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.01.456844v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Functional connectivity gradients as a common neural architecture for predictive processing in the human brain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.01.456844v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Predictive processing is emerging as a common computational hypothesis to account for diverse psychological functions subserved by a brain, providing a systems-level framework for characterizing structure-function relationships of its distinct substructures. Here, we contribute to this framework by examining gradients of functional connectivity as a low dimensional spatial representation of functional variation in the brain and demonstrating their computational implications for predictive processing. Specifically, we investigated functional connectivity gradients in the cerebral cortex, the cerebellum, and the hippocampus using resting-state functional MRI data collected from large samples of healthy young adults. We then evaluated the degree to which these structures share common principles of functional organization by assessing the correspondence of their gradients. We show that the organizing principles of these structures primarily follow two functional gradients consistent with the existing hierarchical accounts of predictive processing: A model-error gradient that describes the flow of prediction and prediction error signals, and a model-precision gradient that differentiates regions involved in the representation and attentional modulation of such signals in the cerebral cortex. Using these gradients, we also demonstrated triangulation of functional connectivity involving distinct subregions of the three structures, which allows characterization of distinct ways in which these structures functionally interact with each other, possibly subserving unique and complementary aspects of predictive processing. These findings support the viability of computational hypotheses about the functional relationships between the cerebral cortex, the cerebellum, and the hippocampus that may be instrumental for understanding the brains dynamics within its large-scale predictive architecture.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Katsumi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamona, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bunce, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutchinson, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yarossi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tunik, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quigley, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dickerson, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feldman Barrett, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.01.456844</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Functional connectivity gradients as a common neural architecture for predictive processing in the human brain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.01.458653v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Nanobody-Functionalized Cellulose for Capturing and Containing SARS-CoV-2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.01.458653v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The highly transmissible severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected more than 217 million people, claiming ~ 4.5 million lives to date. Although mandatory quarantines, lockdowns, and vaccinations help curb viral transmission, safe and effective preventative measures remain urgently needed. Here, we present a generic strategy for containing SARS-CoV-2 by cellulose materials. Specifically, we developed a bifunctional fusion protein consisting of a cellulose-binding domain and a nanobody (Nb) targeting the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2. The immobilization of the fusion proteins on cellulose substrates enhanced the capture efficiency of Nbs against SARS-CoV-2 pseudoviruses of the wildtype and the D614G variant, the latter of which has been shown to confer higher infectivity. Furthermore, the fusion protein was integrated into a customizable chromatography with highly porous cellulose for neutralizing virus from contaminated fluids in a continuous and cost-effective fashion. Taken together, our work leverages low-cost cellulose materials and recently developed Nbs to provide a complementary approach to addressing the pandemic.

IMPORTANCEThe ongoing efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic center around the development of point-of-care diagnostics, preventative measures, and therapeutic strategies against COVID-19. In contrast to existing work, we have provided a complementary approach to target and contain SARS-CoV-2 from contaminated fluids and surfaces. Specifically, we present a generic strategy for the capture and containing of SARS-CoV-2 by cellulose-based substrates. This was archived by developing a bifunctional fusion protein consisting of both a cellulose-binding domain and a nanobody specific for the receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2. As a proof-of-concept, our fusion protein-coated cellulose substrates exhibited enhanced capture efficiency against SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus of both wildtype and the D614G mutant variants, the latter of which has been shown to confer higher infectivity. Furthermore, the fusion protein was integrated into a customizable chromatography with highly porous cellulose for neutralizing the virus from contaminated fluids in a highly continuous and cost-effective fashion.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sun, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al-Dossary, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Broitman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ni, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.01.458653</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Nanobody-Functionalized Cellulose for Capturing and Containing SARS-CoV-2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.02.458773v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modeling CRISPR-Cas13d on-target and off-target effects using machine learning approaches 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.02.458773v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A major challenge in the application of the CRISPR-Cas13d (RfxCas13d, or CasRx) RNA editing system is to accurately predict its guide RNA (gRNA) dependent on-target and off-target effect. Here, we performed CRISPR-Cas13d proliferation screens that target protein-coding genes and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), followed by a systematic modeling of Cas13d on-target efficiency and off-target viability effect. We first designed a deep learning model, named DeepCas13, to predict the on-target activity of a gRNA with high accuracy from its sequence and secondary structure. DeepCas13 outperforms existing methods and accurately predicts the efficiency of guides targeting both protein-coding and non-coding RNAs (e.g., circRNAs and lncRNAs). Next, we systematically studied guides targeting non-essential genes, and found that the off-target viability effect, defined as the unintended effect of guides on cell viability, is closely related to their on-target RNA cleavage efficiency. This finding suggests that these gRNAs should be used as negative controls in proliferation screens to reduce false positives, possibly coming from the unwanted off-target viability effect of efficient guides. Finally, we applied these models to our screens that included guides targeting 234 lncRNAs, and identified lncRNAs that affect cell viability and proliferation in multiple cell lines. DeepCas13 is freely accessible via http://deepcas13.weililab.org.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cheng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.02.458773</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modeling CRISPR-Cas13d on-target and off-target effects using machine learning approaches]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.07.459347v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genome-wide transcriptional profiling uncovers a similar oligodendrocyte-related transcriptional response to acute and chronic alcohol drinking in the amygdala 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.07.459347v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alcohol intake progressively increases after prolonged consumption of alcohol, but relatively few new therapeutics targeting development of alcohol use disorder (AUD) have been validated. Here, we conducted a genome-wide RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis in mice exposed to different modes (acute vs chronic) of ethanol drinking. We focused on transcriptional profiles in the amygdala including the central and basolateral subnuclei, a brain area previously implicated in alcohol drinking and seeking, demonstrating distinct gene expression patterns and canonical pathways induced by both acute and chronic intake. Surprisingly, both drinking modes triggered similar transcriptional changes, including up-regulation of ribosome-related/translational pathways and myelination pathways, and down-regulation of chromatin binding and histone modification. Notably, multiple genes that were significantly regulated in mouse amygdala with alcohol drinking, including Atp2b1, Slc4a7, Nfkb1, Nts, and Hdac2, among others had previously been associated with human AUD via GWAS or other genomic studies. In addition, analyses of hub genes and upstream regulatory pathways predicted that voluntary ethanol consumption affects epigenetic changes via histone deacetylation pathways, oligodendrocyte and myelin function, and oligodendrocyte-related transcriptional factor, Sox17.

Overall, our results suggest that the transcriptional landscape in the central and basolateral subnuclei of the amygdala is sensitive to voluntary alcohol drinking. They provide a unique resource of gene expression data for future translational studies examining transcriptional mechanisms underlying the development of AUD due to alcohol consumption.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Narendra, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klengel, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamzeh, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Otten, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lardenoije, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Newman, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miczek, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klengel, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ressler, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suh, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.07.459347</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genome-wide transcriptional profiling uncovers a similar oligodendrocyte-related transcriptional response to acute and chronic alcohol drinking in the amygdala]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.09.458982v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Transcriptomic-based quantification of the epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal spectrum across biological contexts 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.09.458982v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity (EMP) underlies embryonic development, wound healing, and cancer metastasis and fibrosis. Cancer cells exhibiting EMP often have more aggressive behavior, characterized by drug resistance, and tumor-initiating and immuno-evasive traits. Thus, the EMP status of cancer cells can be a critical indicator of patient prognosis. Here, we compare three distinct transcriptomic-based metrics - each derived using a different gene list and algorithm - that quantify the EMP spectrum. Our results for 96 cancer-related RNA-seq datasets reveal a high degree of concordance among these metrics in quantifying the extent of EMP. Moreover, each metric, despite being trained on cancer expression profiles, recapitulates the expected changes in EMP scores for non-cancer contexts such as lung fibrosis and cellular reprogramming into induced pluripotent stem cells. Thus, we offer a scoring platform to quantify the extent of EMP in vitro and in vivo for diverse biological applications including cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mandal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tejaswi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Janivara, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srikrishnan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thakur, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakraborty, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sohal, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.09.458982</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Transcriptomic-based quantification of the epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal spectrum across biological contexts]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.10.459665v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mechanical Causation of Biological Structure: Productive Pulls Produce Persistent Filaments in a Human Fibroblast Model of Matrix Development 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.10.459665v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The principal mechanisms driving the synthesis and organization of durable animal structure have been the subject of intense investigation for decades. Here, we present evidence that mechanical strains can direct the formation of extracellular matrix (ECM) filaments via a mechanochemical cascade. This process is driven by cooperative cell contractions ("pulls") that organize and precipitate structure via strain-induced polymer assembly. In an in vitro model of ECM synthesis, we use high-resolution optical microscopy to observe the kinematics of cell motion during their growth to confluency and identified cell-to-cell pulls that result in the production of persistent ECM filaments. Using live-cell confocal imaging, we confirmed that these pulls can directly cause the formation of fibronectin filaments that then bind collagen, producing persistent structures aligned with the direction of the pull. The finding suggests a new model for initial durable structure formation in animals based on local cell contraction, extensional strain and polymer mechanochemistry. The results have important implications for ECM development, growth and life-threatening pathologies of the ECM such as fibrosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Silverman, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siadat, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olszewski, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruberti, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.10.459665</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mechanical Causation of Biological Structure: Productive Pulls Produce Persistent Filaments in a Human Fibroblast Model of Matrix Development]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.12.459968v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Full-length NLRP3 forms oligomeric cages to mediate NLRP3 sensing and activation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.12.459968v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich-repeat (LRR) containing protein 3 with a pyrin domain (NLRP3) is emerging to be a critical intracellular inflammasome sensor of membrane integrity and a highly important clinical target against chronic inflammation. Here we report that the endogenous, stimulus-responsive form of full-length NLRP3 is a 12-16 mer double ring cage held together by LRR-LRR interactions with the pyrin domains shielded within the assembly to avoid premature activation. Surprisingly, this NLRP3 form is predominantly membrane localized, which is consistent with previously noted localization of NLRP3 at various membrane organelles. Structure-guided mutagenesis reveals that trans-Golgi network dispersion into vesicles, an early event observed for all NLRP3 activating stimuli, requires the double ring cages of NLRP3. Double ring-defective NLRP3 mutants further abolish inflammasome punctum formation, caspase-1 processing and cell death. Thus, unlike other inflammasome sensors that are monomeric when inactive, our data uncover a unique NLRP3 oligomer on membrane that is poised to sense diverse signals to induce inflammasome activation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Andreeva, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>David, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rawson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pasricha, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pelegrin, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.12.459968</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Full-length NLRP3 forms oligomeric cages to mediate NLRP3 sensing and activation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.20.461151v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Seeing the Forest for the trees: Assessing genetic offset predictions with Gradient Forest 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.20.461151v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Gradient Forest (GF) is increasingly being used to forecast climate change impacts, but remains mostly untested for this purpose. We explore its robustness to assumption violations, and relationship to measures of fitness, using SLiM simulations with explicit genome architecture and a spatial metapopulation. We evaluate measures of GF offset in: (1) a neutral model with no environmental adaptation; (2) a monogenic "population genetic" model with a single environmentally adapted locus; and (3) a polygenic "quantitative genetic" model with two adaptive traits, each adapting to a different environment. Although we found GF Offset to be broadly correlated with fitness offsets under both single locus and polygenic architectures. It could also be confounded by neutral demography, genomic architecture, and the nature of the adaptive environment. GF Offset is a promising tool, but it is important to understand its limitations and underlying assumptions, especially when used in the context of forecasting maladaptation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Laruson, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fitzpatrick, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keller, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haller, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.20.461151</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Seeing the Forest for the trees: Assessing genetic offset predictions with Gradient Forest]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.22.461292v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Assessment of community efforts to advance computational prediction of protein-protein interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.22.461292v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Comprehensive insights from the human protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, known as the human interactome, can provide important insights into the molecular mechanisms of complex biological processes and diseases. Despite the remarkable experimental efforts undertaken to date to determine the structure of the human interactome, many PPIs remain unmapped. Computational approaches, especially network-based methods, can facilitate the identification of new PPIs. Many such approaches have been proposed. However, a systematic evaluation of existing network-based methods in predicting PPIs is still lacking. Here, we report community efforts initiated by the International Network Medicine Consortium to benchmark the ability of 24 representative network-based methods to predict PPIs across five different interactomes, including a synthetic interactome generated by the duplication-mutation-complementation model, and the interactomes of four different organisms: A. thaliana, C. elegans, S. cerevisiae, and H. sapiens. We selected the top-seven methods through a computational validation on the human interactome. We next experimentally validated their top-500 predicted PPIs (in total 3,276 predicted PPIs) using the yeast two-hybrid assay, finding 1,177 new human PPIs (involving 633 proteins). Our results indicate that task-tailored similarity-based methods, which leverage the underlying network characteristics of PPIs, show superior performance over other general link prediction methods. Through experimental validation, we confirmed that the top-ranking methods show promising performance externally. For example, from the top 500 PPIs predicted by an advanced similarity-base method [MPS(B&T)], 430 were successfully tested by Y2H with 376 testing positive, yielding a precision of 87.4%. These results establish advanced similarity-based methods as powerful tools for the prediction of human PPIs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madeddu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spirohn, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martini, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fazzone, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Becchetti, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wytock, T. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kovacs, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balogh, O. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benczik, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petervari, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agg, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferdinandy, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vulliard, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menche, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colonnese, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petti, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scarano, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cuomo, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laval, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willems, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Twizere, J.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calderwood, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petrillo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silverman, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loscalzo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Velardi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.22.461292</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Assessment of community efforts to advance computational prediction of protein-protein interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.22.461454v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A new class of cell wall-recycling L,D-carboxypeptidase determines β-lactam susceptibility and morphogenesis in Acinetobacter baumannii 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.22.461454v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The hospital-acquired pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii possesses a complex cell envelope that is key to its multidrug resistance and virulence. The bacterium, however, lacks many canonical enzymes that build the envelope in model organisms. Instead, A. baumannii contains a number of poorly annotated proteins that may allow alternative mechanisms of envelope biogenesis. We demonstrated previously that one of these unusual proteins, ElsL, is required for cell elongation and for withstanding antibiotics that attack the septal cell wall. Curiously, ElsL is composed of a leaderless YkuD-family domain usually found in secreted, cell-wall-modifying L,D-transpeptidases (LDTs). Here, we show that, rather than being an LDT, ElsL is actually a new class of cytoplasmic L,D-carboxypeptidase (LDC) that provides a critical step in cell-wall recycling previously thought to be missing from A. baumannii. Absence of ElsL impairs cell wall integrity, elongation, and intrinsic resistance due to buildup of murein tetrapeptide precursors, toxicity of which is bypassed by preventing muropeptide recycling. Multiple pathways in the cell become sites of vulnerability when ElsL is inactivated, including L,D-crosslink formation, cell division, and outer membrane lipid homoeostasis, reflecting its pleiotropic influence on cell envelope physiology. We thus reveal a novel class of cell-wall-recycling LDC critical to growth and homeostasis of A. baumannii and likely many other bacteria.

ImportanceTo grow efficiently, resist antibiotics, and control the immune response, bacteria recycle parts of their cell wall. A key step in the typical recycling pathway is the reuse of cell wall peptides by an enzyme known as an LDC. Acinetobacter baumannii, an "urgent-threat" pathogen causing drug-resistant sepsis in hospitals, was previously thought to lack this enzymatic activity due to absence of a known LDC homolog. Here, we show that A. baumannii possesses this activity in the form of an enzyme class not previously associated with cell wall recycling. Absence of this protein intoxicates and weakens the A. baumannii cell envelope in multiple ways due to the accumulation of dead-end intermediates. Several other organisms of importance to health and disease encode homologs of the A. baumannii enzyme. This work thus reveals an unappreciated mechanism of cell wall recycling, manipulation of which may contribute to enhanced treatments targeting the bacterial envelope.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinedo, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, A. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cava, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geisinger, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.22.461454</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A new class of cell wall-recycling L,D-carboxypeptidase determines β-lactam susceptibility and morphogenesis in Acinetobacter baumannii]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.23.461430v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modulation of sensory perception by hydrogen peroxide enables Caenorhabditis elegans to find a niche that provides both food and protection from hydrogen peroxide 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.23.461430v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is the most common chemical threat that organisms face. Here, we show that H2O2 alters the bacterial food preference of Caenorhabditis elegans, enabling the nematodes to find a safe environment with food. H2O2 induces the nematodes to leave food patches of laboratory and microbiome bacteria when those bacterial communities have insufficient H2O2-degrading capacity. The nematodes behavior is directed by H2O2-sensing neurons that promote escape from H2O2 and by bacteria-sensing neurons that promote attraction to bacteria. However, the input for H2O2-sensing neurons is removed by bacterial H2O2-degrading enzymes and the bacteria-sensing neurons perception of bacteria is prevented by H2O2. The resulting cross-attenuation provides a general mechanism that ensures the nematodes behavior is faithful to the lethal threat of hydrogen peroxide, increasing the nematodes chances of finding a niche that provides both food and protection from hydrogen peroxide.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schiffer, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stumbur, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seyedolmohadesin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Serkin, W. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGowan, N. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banjo, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torkashvand, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hosea, C. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Assie, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samuel, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Donnell, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apfeld, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.23.461430</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modulation of sensory perception by hydrogen peroxide enables Caenorhabditis elegans to find a niche that provides both food and protection from hydrogen peroxide]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.25.461773v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Control of subunit stoichiometry in single-chain MspA nanopores 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.25.461773v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transmembrane protein channels enable fast and highly sensitive electrical detection of single molecules. Nanopore sequencing of DNA was achieved using an engineered Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A (MspA) in combination with a motor enzyme. Due to its favorable channel geometry, the octameric MspA pore exhibits the highest current level as compared to other pore proteins. To date, MspA is the only protein nanopore with a published record of DNA sequencing. While widely used in commercial devices, nanopore sequencing of DNA suffers from significant base-calling errors due to stochastic events of the complex DNA-motor-pore combination and the contribution of up to five nucleotides to the signal at each position. Asymmetric mutations within subunits of the channel protein offer an enormous potential to improve nucleotide resolution and sequencing accuracy. However, random subunit assembly does not allow control of the channel composition of MspA and other oligomeric protein pores. In this study, we showed that it is feasible to convert octameric MspA into a single-chain pore by connecting eight subunits using peptide linkers. We constructed single-chain MspA trimers, pentamers, hexamers and heptamers to demonstrate that it is feasible to alter the subunit stoichiometry and the MspA pore diameter. All single-chain MspA proteins formed functional channels in lipid bilayer experiments. Importantly, we demonstrated that single-chain MspA discriminated all four nucleotides identical to MspA produced from monomers. Thus, single-chain MspA constitutes a new milestone in its development and adaptation as a biosensor for DNA sequencing and many other applications.

STATEMENT OF SIGNFICANCENanopore sequencing of DNA is a fast and cheap technology that uniquely delivers multi-kilobase reads. It is currently used world-wide in many applications such as genome sequencing, epigenetics, and surveillance of viral and bacterial pathogens and has started to revolutionize human lives in medicine, agriculture and environmental studies. However, the high base-calling error rates prevent nanopore DNA sequencing from reaching its full potential. In this study, we converted octameric MspA into a single-chain pore enabling asymmetric mutations to fine-tune the pore geometry and chemistry and address the shortcomings of nanopores. Thus, single-chain MspA constitutes a new milestone in its development and adaptation as a biosensor for DNA sequencing and many other applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pavlenok, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herrmann, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niederweis, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.25.461773</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Control of subunit stoichiometry in single-chain MspA nanopores]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.27.461883v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comammox Nitrospira bacteria outnumber canonical nitrifiers irrespective of electron donor mode and availability 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.27.461883v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Complete ammonia oxidizing bacteria coexist with canonical ammonia and nitrite oxidizing bacteria in a wide range of environments. Whether this is due to competitive or cooperative interactions, or a result of niche separation is not yet clear. Understanding the factors driving coexistence of nitrifiers is critical to manage nitrification processes occurring in engineered and natural ecosystems. In this study, microcosm-based experiments were used to investigate the impact of nitrogen source and loading on the population dynamics of nitrifiers in drinking water biofilter media. Shotgun sequencing of DNA followed by co-assembly and reconstruction of metagenome assembled genomes revealed clade A2 comammox bacteria were likely the primary nitrifiers within microcosms and increased in abundance over Nitrsomonas-like ammonia and Nitrospira-like nitrite oxidizing bacteria irrespective of nitrogen source type or loading. Changes in comammox bacterial abundance did not correlate with either ammonia or nitrite oxidizing bacterial abundance in urea amended systems where metabolic reconstruction indicated potential for cross feeding between ammonia and nitrite oxidizing bacteria. In contrast, comammox bacterial abundance demonstrated a negative correlation with nitrite oxidizers in ammonia amended systems. This suggests potentially weaker synergistic relationships between ammonia and nitrite oxidizers might enable comammox bacteria to displace nitrite oxidizers from complex nitrifying communities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vilardi, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cotto, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rivera, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.27.461883</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comammox Nitrospira bacteria outnumber canonical nitrifiers irrespective of electron donor mode and availability]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.28.462155v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Unidirectional Single-File Transport of Full-Length Proteins Through a Nanopore 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.09.28.462155v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Nanopore sensors could revolutionize single-molecule proteomics by providing a means for identification of known proteins through fingerprinting or by de novo sequencing. However, the complex chemical and physical properties of proteins present multiple challenges to the conventional nanopore sensing method, predominantly, the single-file threading of a protein chain into a nanopore and its transport through it. Herein we describe a general approach for realizing unidirectional transport of full-length proteins through nanopores. We show that the combination of a chemically resistant biological nanopore platform and a high concentration guanidinium chloride buffer enables protein unfolding and unidirectional transport through a pore, propelled by an electroosmotic effect that largely owes to the guanidinium chloride presence. The uniform and slow (~10 {micro}s/amino acid) single-file transport, when combined with supervised machine learning of the electrical current signatures obtained, allows us to use to discern the protein threading orientation and identity. In conjunction with a method for tail-modification of native proteins and higher-resolution nanopores, our approach could offer a path towards direct single-molecule protein fingerprinting without the requirement of a motor enzyme.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehrafrooz, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makhamreh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fallahi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aksimentiev, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-09-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.09.28.462155</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Unidirectional Single-File Transport of Full-Length Proteins Through a Nanopore]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-09-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.01.462777v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stimulating music supports attention in listeners with attentional difficulties 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.01.462777v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Background music is widely used to sustain attention, but little is known about what musical properties aid attention. This may be due to inter-individual variability in neural responses to music. We test the hypothesis that music can sustain attention by affecting oscillations via acoustic amplitude modulation, differentially for those with varying levels of attentional difficulty. We first show that heavily-modulated music improves sustained attention for participants with more ADHD symptoms. FMRI showed this music elicited greater activity in attentional networks in this group only, and EEG showed greater stimulus-brain coupling for this group in response to the heavily-modulated music. Finally, we parametrically manipulated the depth and rate of amplitude modulations inserted in otherwise-identical music, and found that beta-range modulations helped more than other frequency ranges for participants with more ADHD symptoms. Results suggest the possibility of an oscillation-based neural mechanism for targeted music to support improved cognitive performance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Woods, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sempaio, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>James, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Przysinda, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hewett, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spencer, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morillon, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.01.462777</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stimulating music supports attention in listeners with attentional difficulties]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.08.463601v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Age-related change in task-evoked amygdala-prefrontal circuitry: a multiverse approach with an accelerated longitudinal cohort aged 4-22 years 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.08.463601v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The amygdala and its connections with medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) play central roles in the development of emotional processes. While several studies have suggested that this circuitry exhibits functional changes across the first two decades of life, findings have been mixed - perhaps resulting from differences in analytic choices across studies. Here we used multiverse analyses to examine the robustness of task-based amygdala-mPFC function findings to analytic choices within the context of an accelerated longitudinal design (4-22 years- old; N=98; 183 scans; 1-3 scans/participant). Participants, recruited from the greater Los Angeles area, completed an event-related emotional face (fear, neutral) task. Parallel analyses varying in preprocessing and modeling choices found that age-related change estimates for amygdala reactivity were more robust than task-evoked amygdala-mPFC functional connectivity to varied analytical choices. Specification curves indicated evidence for age-related decreases in amygdala reactivity to faces, though within-participant changes in amygdala reactivity could not be differentiated from between-participant differences. In contrast, amygdala--mPFC functional connectivity results varied across methods much more, and evidence for age-related change in amygdala-mPFC connectivity was not consistent. Generalized psychophysiological interaction (gPPI) measurements of connectivity were especially sensitive to whether a deconvolution step was applied. Our findings demonstrate the importance of assessing the robustness of findings to analysis choices, although the age-related changes in our current work cannot be overinterpreted given low test-retest reliability. Together, these findings highlight both the challenges in estimating developmental change in longitudinal cohorts and the value of multiverse approaches in developmental neuroimaging for assessing robustness of results. (Preprint: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.08.463601v1).

Key PointsO_LIMultiverse analyses applied to fMRI data are valuable for determining the robustness of findings to varied analytical choices
C_LIO_LIIn the current study, age-related change estimates for amygdala reactivity were relatively robust to analytical decisions, though gPPI functional connectivity analyses were much more sensitive, leading some estimates to flip sign
C_LIO_LIBoth test-retest reliability and robustness to analytical choices are important considerations for developmental research
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bloom, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>VanTieghem, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabard-Durnam, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gee, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flannery, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caldera, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goff, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Telzer, E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Humphreys, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fareri, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shapiro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Algharazi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolger, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aly, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tottenham, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.08.463601</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Age-related change in task-evoked amygdala-prefrontal circuitry: a multiverse approach with an accelerated longitudinal cohort aged 4-22 years]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.18.464832v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Nuclear DNA-encoded fragments of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) confound analysis of selection of mtDNA mutations in human primordial germ cells. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.18.464832v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The resilience of the mitochondrial genome to a high mutational pressure depends, in part, on purifying selection against detrimental mutations in the germline. It is crucial to understand the mechanisms of this process. Recently, Floros et al. concluded that much of the purifying selection takes place during the proliferation of primordial germ cells (PGCs) because, according to their analysis, the synonymity of mutations in late PGCs was seemingly increased compared to those in early PGCs. We re-analyzed the Floros et al. mutational data and discovered a high proportion of sequence variants that are not true mutations, but originate from NUMTs, the latter of which are segments of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) inserted into nuclear DNA, up to millions of years ago. This is a well-known artifact in mtDNA mutational analysis. Removal of these artifacts from the Floros et al. dataset abolishes the reported effect of purifying selection in PGCs. We therefore conclude that the mechanism of germline selection of mtDNA mutations remains open for debate, and more research is needed to fully elucidate the timing and nature of this process.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleischmann, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Annis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tilly, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Orseshkov, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.18.464832</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Nuclear DNA-encoded fragments of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) confound analysis of selection of mtDNA mutations in human primordial germ cells.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.21.465358v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Translocation of polyubiquitinated protein substrates by the hexameric Cdc48 ATPase 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.21.465358v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The hexameric Cdc48 ATPase (p97 or VCP in mammals) cooperates with its cofactor Ufd1/Npl4 to extract polyubiquitinated proteins from membranes or macromolecular complexes for degradation by the proteasome. Here, we clarify how the Cdc48 complex unfolds its substrates and translocates polypeptides with branchpoints. The Cdc48 complex recognizes primarily polyubiquitin chains, rather than the attached substrate. Cdc48 and Ufd1/Npl4 cooperatively bind the polyubiquitin chain, resulting in the unfolding of one ubiquitin molecule (initiator). Next, the ATPase pulls on the initiator ubiquitin and moves all ubiquitin molecules linked to its C-terminus through the central pore of the hexameric double-ring, causing transient ubiquitin unfolding. When the ATPase reaches the isopeptide bond of the substrate, it can translocate and unfold both N- and C-terminal segments. Ubiquitins linked to the branchpoint of the initiator dissociate from Ufd1/Npl4 and move outside the central pore, resulting in the release of unfolded, polyubiquitinated substrate from Cdc48.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ji, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peterle, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paulo, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ficarro, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marto, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gygi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rapoport, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.21.465358</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Translocation of polyubiquitinated protein substrates by the hexameric Cdc48 ATPase]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.22.465507v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SPARClink: an interactive tool to visualize the impact of the SPARC program 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.22.465507v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The NIH SPARC program seeks to accelerate the development of therapeutic devices that modulate electrical activity in nerves to improve organ function. SPARC-funded researchers are generating rich datasets from neuromodulation research that are curated and shared according to FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) guidelines and are accessible to the public on the SPARC data portal. Keeping track of the utilization of these datasets within the larger research community is a feature that will benefit data generating researchers in showcasing the impact of their SPARC outcomes. This will also allow the SPARC program to display the impact of the FAIR data curation and sharing practices that have been implemented. This manuscript provides the methods and outcomes of SPARClink, our web tool for visualizing the impact of SPARC, which won the 2nd prize at the 2021 SPARC FAIR Codeathon. With SPARClink, we built a system that automatically and continuously finds new published SPARC scientific outputs (datasets, publications, protocols) and the external resources referring to them. SPARC datasets and protocols are queried using publicly accessible REST APIs (provided by Pennsieve and Protocols.io) and stored in a publicly accessible database. Citation information for these resources is retrieved using the NIH reporter API and NCBI Entrez system. A novel knowledge-graph-based structure was created to visualize the results of these queries and showcase the impact that the FAIR data principles can have on the research landscape when they are adopted by a consortium.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Soundarajan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuruppu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Achalla, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.22.465507</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SPARClink: an interactive tool to visualize the impact of the SPARC program]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.25.465658v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
ProS-GNN: Predicting effects of mutations on protein stability using graph neural networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.25.465658v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationPredicting protein stability change upon variation through computational approach is a valuable tool to unveil the mechanisms of mutation-induced drug failure and help to develop immunotherapy strategies. However, some machine learning based methods tend to be overfitting on the training data or show anti-symmetric biases between direct and reverse mutations. Moreover, this field requires the methods to fully exploit the limited experimental data.

ResultsHere we pioneered a deep graph neural network based method for predicting protein stability change upon mutation. After mutant part data extraction, the model encoded the molecular structure-property relationships using message passing and incorporated raw atom coordinates to enable spatial insights into the molecular systems. We trained the model using the S2648 and S3412 datasets, and tested on the Ssym and Myoglobin datasets. Compared to existing methods, our proposed method showed competitive high performance in data generalization and bias suppression with ultra-low time consumption. Furthermore, method was applied to predict the Pyrazinamides Gibbs free energy change for a real case study.

Availabilityhttps://github.com/shuyu-wang/ProS-GNN.

Contactvincentwang622@126.com
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zuo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.25.465658</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[ProS-GNN: Predicting effects of mutations on protein stability using graph neural networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.03.467007v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Increasing the throughput of sensitive proteomics by plexDIA 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.03.467007v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Current mass-spectrometry methods enable high-throughput proteomics of large sample amounts, but proteomics of low sample amounts remains limited in depth and throughput. To increase the throughput of sensitive proteomics, we developed an experimental and computational framework, plexDIA, for simultaneously multiplexing the analysis of both peptides and samples. Multiplexed analysis with plexDIA increases throughput multiplicatively with the number of labels without reducing proteome coverage or quantitative accuracy. By using 3-plex nonisobaric mass tags, plexDIA enables quantifying 3-fold more protein ratios among nanogram-level samples. Using 1 hour active gradients and first-generation Q Exactive, plexDIA quantified about 8,000 proteins in each sample of labeled 3-plex sets. plexDIA also increases data completeness, reducing missing data over 2-fold across samples. We applied plexDIA to quantify proteome dynamics during the cell division cycle in cells isolated based on their DNA content; plexDIA detected many classical cell cycle proteins and discovered new ones. When applied to single human cells, plexDIA quantified about 1,000 proteins per cell and achieved 98 % data completeness within a plexDIA set while using about 5 min of active chromatography per cell. These results establish a general framework for increasing the throughput of sensitive and quantitative protein analysis.



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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Derks, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huffman, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ralser, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Demichev, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.03.467007</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Increasing the throughput of sensitive proteomics by plexDIA]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.03.467190v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Detection of pseudouridine modifications and type I/II hypermodifications in human mRNAs using direct, long-read sequencing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.03.467190v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We developed and applied a semi-quantitative method for high-confidence identification of pseudouridylated sites on mammalian mRNAs via direct long-read nanopore sequencing. A comparative analysis of a modification-free transcriptome reveals that the depth of coverage and specific k-mer sequences are critical parameters for accurate basecalling. By adjusting these parameters for high-confidence U-to-C basecalling errors, we identified many known sites of pseudouridylation and uncovered new uridine-modified sites, many of which fall in k-mers that are known targets of pseudouridine synthases. Identified sites were validated using 1,000-mer synthetic RNA controls bearing a single pseudouridine in the center position which demonstrate systematical under-calling using our approach. We identify mRNAs with up to 7 unique modification sites. Our pipeline allows direct detection of low-, medium-, and high-occupancy pseudouridine modifications on native RNA molecules from nanopore sequencing data as well as multiple modifications on the same strand.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tavakoli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nabizadehmashhadtoroghi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makhamreh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gamper, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rezapour, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, Y.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.03.467190</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Detection of pseudouridine modifications and type I/II hypermodifications in human mRNAs using direct, long-read sequencing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.07.467589v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Interneuron Control of C. elegans Developmental Decision-making 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.07.467589v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Animals integrate external stimuli to shape their physiological responses throughout development. In adverse environments, Caenorhabditis elegans larvae can enter a stress-resistant diapause state with arrested metabolism and reproductive physiology. Amphid sensory neurons feed into both rapid chemotactic and short-term foraging mode decisions, mediated by amphid and premotor interneurons, as well as the long-term diapause decision. We identify amphid interneurons that integrate pheromone cues and propagate this information via a neuropeptidergic pathways to influence larval developmental fate, bypassing the pre-motor system. AIA interneuron-derived FLP-2 neuropeptide signaling promotes reproductive growth and AIA activity is suppressed by pheromone. FLP-2 acts antagonistically to the insulin-like INS-1. FLP-2s growth promoting effects are inhibited by upstream metabotropic glutamatergic signaling and mediated by the broadly-expressed neuropeptide receptor NPR-30. Conversely, the AIB interneurons and their neuropeptide receptor NPR-9/GALR2 promote diapause entry. These neuropeptidergic outputs allow reuse of parts of a sensory system for a decision with a distinct timescale.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chai, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torkashvand, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seyedolmohadesin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sternberg, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.07.467589</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Interneuron Control of C. elegans Developmental Decision-making]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.09.467929v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Photoimmunotherapy retains its anti-tumor efficacy with increasing stromal content in heterotypic pancreatic cancer spheroids 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.09.467929v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive disease characterized by increased levels of desmoplasia that contributes to reduced drug delivery and poor treatment outcomes. In PDAC, the stromal content can account for up to 90% of the total tumor volume. The complex interplay between stromal components, including pancreatic cancer associated fibroblasts (PCAFs), and PDAC cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) have a significant impact on prognoses and thus needs to be recapitulated in vitro when evaluating various treatment strategies. This study is a systematic evaluation of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in 3D heterotypic coculture models of PDAC with varying ratios of patient derived PCAFs that simulate heterogenous PDAC tumors with increasing stromal content. The efficacy of antibody-targeted PDT (photoimmunotherapy; PIT) using cetuximab photoimmunoconjugates (PICs) of benzoporphyrin derivative (BPD) is contrasted with that of liposomal BPD (Visudyne(R)), which is currently in PDT clinical trials for PDAC. We demonstrate that both Visudyne(R)-PDT and PIT were effective in heterotypic PDAC 3D spheroids with a low stromal content. However, as the stromal content increases above 50% in the 3D spheroids, the efficacy of Visudyne(R)-PDT is reduced by up to 10-fold, while PIT retains its efficacy. PIT was found to be 10-fold, 19-fold and 14-fold more phototoxic in spheroids with 50%, 75% and 90% PCAFs, respectively, as compared to Visudyne(R)-PDT. This marked difference in efficacy is attributed to the ability of PICs to penetrate and distribute within spheroids with a higher stromal content, whereas Visudyne(R) is restricted to the spheroid periphery. This study thus demonstrates how the stromal content in PDAC spheroids directly impacts their responsiveness to PDT and proposes PIT to be a highly suited treatment option for desmoplastic tumors with particularly high degrees of stromal content.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Saad, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhung, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stanley, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Formica, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Obaid, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hasan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.09.467929</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Photoimmunotherapy retains its anti-tumor efficacy with increasing stromal content in heterotypic pancreatic cancer spheroids]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.10.468063v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A synthetic distributed genetic multi-bit counter 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.10.468063v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A design for genetically-encoded counters is proposed via repressor-based circuits. An N -bit counter reads sequences of input pulses and displays the total number of pulses, modulo 2N .

The design is based on distributed computation, with specialized cell types allocated to specific tasks. This allows scalability and bypasses constraints on the maximal number of circuit genes per cell due to toxicity or failures due to resource limitations.

The design starts with a single-bit counter. The N -bit counter is then obtained by interconnecting (using diffusible chemicals) a set of N single-bit counters and connector modules.

An optimization framework is used to determine appropriate gate parameters and to compute bounds on admissible pulse widths and relaxation (inter-pulse) times, as well as to guide the construction of novel gates.

This work can be viewed as a step toward obtaining circuits that are capable of finite-automaton computation, in analogy to digital central processing units.

Graphical Abstract

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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ali Al-Radhawi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Voigt, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.10.468063</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A synthetic distributed genetic multi-bit counter]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.11.468295v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Lactate production can function to increase human epithelial cell iron concentration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.11.468295v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Iron is an essential micronutrient required by every cell, inclusive of both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Under conditions of limited iron availability, plants and microbes evolved mechanisms to acquire iron which include carbon metabolism reprogramming, with the activity of several enzymes involved in the Krebs cycle and the glycolytic pathway being stimulated by metal deficiency. Following release, resultant carboxylates/hydroxycarboxylates can function as ligands to complex iron and facilitate its solubilization and uptake, reversing the deficiency. Human epithelial tissue may produce lactate, a hydroxycarboxylate, during absolute and functional iron deficiency in an attempt to import metal to reverse limited availability. Here we investigate 1) if lactate can increase cell metal import, 2) if lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) activity in and lactate production by cells correspond to metal availability, and 3) if blood concentrations of LDH in a human cohort correlate with indices of iron homeostasis. Exposures of Caco-2 cells to both Na lactate and ferric ammonium citrate (FAC) increased metal import relative to FAC alone. Fumaric, isocitric, malic, and succinic acid exposure revealed that FAC co-incubation similarly increased iron import relative to FAC alone. Increased iron import following exposures to Na lactate and FAC elevated both ferritin and metal associated with mitochondria. LDH in Caco-2 cell scrapings did not change after exposure to deferoxamine but decreased with 24 hr exposure to FAC. Lactate levels in both the supernatants and cell scrapings revealed decreased levels at 4, 8, and 24 hr with FAC. In the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 2005-2010), Spearman correlations demonstrated significant negative relationships between LDH concentrations and serum iron. We conclude that iron import in human cells can involve lactate, LDH activity can reflect the availability of this metal, and blood LDH concentrations can correlate with indices of iron homeostasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ghio, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soukup, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dailey, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghio, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schreinemachers, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.11.468295</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lactate production can function to increase human epithelial cell iron concentration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.11.468299v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Three-dimensional Cancer Cell Migration Directed by Dual Mechanochemical Guidance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.11.468299v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Directed cell migration guided by external cues plays a central role in many physiological and pathophysiological processes. The microenvironment of cells often simultaneously contains various cues and the motility response of cells to multiplexed guidance is poorly understood. Here we combine experiments and mathematical models to study the three-dimensional migration of breast cancer cells in the presence of both contact guidance and a chemoattractant gradient. We find that the chemotaxis of cells is complicated by the presence of contact guidance as the microstructure of extracellular matrix (ECM) vary spatially. In the presence of dual guidance, the impact of ECM alignment is determined externally by the coherence of ECM fibers, and internally by cell mechanosensing Rho/Rock pathways. When contact guidance is parallel to the chemical gradient, coherent ECM fibers significantly increase the efficiency of chemotaxis. When contact guidance is perpendicular to the chemical gradient, cells exploit the ECM disorder to locate paths for chemotaxis. Our results underscores the importance of fully characterizing the cancer cell microenvironment in order to better understand invasion and metastasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Esfahani, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mukherjee, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.11.468299</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Three-dimensional Cancer Cell Migration Directed by Dual Mechanochemical Guidance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.20.469404v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Active Segregation Dynamics in the Living Cell 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.20.469404v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In this paper, we bring together our efforts in identifying and understanding nonequilibrium phase segregation driven by active processes in the living cell, with special focus on the segregation of cell membrane components driven by active contractile stresses arising from cortical actomyosin. This also has implications for active segregation dynamics in membraneless regions within the cytoplasm and nucleus (3d). We formulate an active version of the Flory-Huggins theory that incorporates a contribution from fluctuating active stresses. Apart from knitting together some of our past theoretical work in a comprehensive narrative, we highlight some new results, and establish a correspondence with recent studies on Active Model B/B+. We point to the many unusual aspects of the dynamics of active phase segregation, such as (i) anomalous growth dynamics, (ii) coarsening accompanied by propulsion and coalescence of domains that exhibit nonreciprocal effects, (iii) segregation into mesoscale domains, (iv) emergence of a nonequilibrium phase segregated steady state characterised by strong macroscopic fluctuations (fluctuation dominated phase ordering (FDPO)), and (v) mesoscale segregation even above the equilibrium Tc. Apart from its implications for actively driven segregation of binary fluids, these ideas are at the heart of an Active Emulsion description of the lateral organisation of molecules on the plasma membrane of living cells, whose full molecular elaboration appears elsewhere.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bansal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Das, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rao, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.20.469404</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Active Segregation Dynamics in the Living Cell]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.26.470138v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Noise in a metabolic pathway leads to persister formation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.26.470138v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tuberculosis is difficult to treat due to dormant cells in hypoxic granulomas, and stochastically-formed persisters tolerant of antibiotics. Bactericidal antibiotics kill by corrupting their energy-dependent targets. We reasoned that noise in the expression of an energy-generating component will produce rare persister cells. In sorted low ATP M. tuberculosis grown on acetate there is considerable cell-to-cell variation in the level of mRNA coding for AckA, the acetate kinase. Quenching the noise by overexpressing ackA sharply decreases persisters, showing that it acts as the main persister gene under these conditions. This demonstrates that a low energy mechanism is responsible for the formation of M. tuberculosis persisters and suggests that the mechanism of their antibiotic tolerance is similar to that of dormant cells in a granuloma. Entrance into a low energy state driven by stochastic variation in expression of energy-producing enzymes is likely a general mechanism by which bacteria produce persisters.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Quigley, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-11-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.11.26.470138</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Noise in a metabolic pathway leads to persister formation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-11-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.02.470615v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
NRF2-dependent epigenetic regulation can promote the hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal phenotype 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.02.470615v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a cellular process critical for wound healing, cancer metastasis and embryonic development. Recent efforts have identified the role of hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal states, having both epithelial and mesehncymal traits, in enabling cancer metastasis and resistance to various therapies. Also, previous work has suggested that NRF2 can act as phenotypic stability factor to help stablize such hybrid states. Here, we incorporate a phenomenological epigenetic feedback effect into our previous computational model for EMT signaling. We show that this type of feedback can stabilize the hybrid state as compared to the fully mesenchymal phenotype if NRF2 can influence SNAIL at an epigenetic level, as this link makes transitions out of hybrid state more difficult. However, epigenetic regulation on other NRF2-related links do not significantly change the EMT dynamics. Finally, we considered possible cell division effects in our epigenetic regulation model, and our results indicate that the degree of epigenetic inheritance does not appear to be a critical factor for the hybrid E/M state stabilizing behavior of NRF2.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jia, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.02.470615</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[NRF2-dependent epigenetic regulation can promote the hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal phenotype]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.03.460832v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mitochondrial mutational spectrum is associated with mammalian longevity: a novel signature of oxidative damage. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.03.460832v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The mutational spectrum of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) does not resemble any of the known mutational signatures of the nuclear genome and variation in mtDNA mutational spectra between different organisms is still incomprehensible. Since mitochondria is tightly involved in aerobic energy production, it is expected that mtDNA mutational spectra is affected by the oxidative damage. Assuming that oxidative damage increases with age, we analyze mtDNA mutagenesis of different species. Analysing (i) dozens thousands of somatic mtDNA mutations in samples of different age (ii) 70053 polymorphic synonymous mtDNA substitutions, reconstructed in 424 mammalian species with different generation length and (iii) synonymous nucleotide content of 650 complete mitochondrial genomes of mammalian species we observed that the frequency of AH>GH substitutions (H - heavy chain notation) is twice higher in species with high versus low generation length making their mtDNA more AH poor and GH rich. Considering that AH>GH substitutions are also sensitive to the time spent single stranded (TSSS) during asynchroniuos mtDNA replication we demonstrated that AH>GH substitution rate is a function of both species-specific generation length and position specific TSSS. We propose that AH>GH is a mitochondria-specific signature of oxidative damage associated with both aging and TSSS.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mikhailova, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mikhailova, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ushakova, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tretiakov, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shamanskiy, V. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iurchenko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zazhytska, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kozenkova, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zdobnov, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makeev, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yurov, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tanaka, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gostimskaya, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleischmann, Z. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Annis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wasko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunz, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knorre, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazunin, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nikolaev, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fellay, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reymond, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunbin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.03.460832</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mitochondrial mutational spectrum is associated with mammalian longevity: a novel signature of oxidative damage.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.03.471063v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A family of fitness landscapes modeled through gene regulatory networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.03.471063v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Over 100 years, Fitness landscapes have been a powerful metaphor for understanding the evolution of biological systems. These landscapes describe how genotypes are connected to each other and are related according to relative fitness. Despite the high dimensionality of such real-world landscapes, empirical studies are often limited in their ability to quantify the fitness of different genotypes beyond point mutations, while theoretical works attempt statistical/mechanistic models to reason the overall landscape structure. However, most classical fitness landscape models overlook an instinctive constraint that genotypes leading to the same phenotype almost certainly share the same fitness value, since the information of genotype-phenotype mapping is rarely incorporated. Here, we investigate fitness landscape models through the lens of Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs), where the regulatory products are computed from multiple genes and collectively treated as the phenotypes. With the assumption that regulatory mediators/products exhibit binary states, we prove topographical features of GRN fitness landscape models such as accessibility and connectivity insensitive to the choice of the fitness function. Furthermore, using graph theory, we deduce a mesoscopic structure underlying GRN fitness landscape models that retains necessary information for evolutionary dynamics with minimal complexity. We also propose an algorithm to construct such a mesoscopic backbone which is more efficient than the brute-force approach. Combined, this work provides mathematical implications for fitness landscape models with high-dimensional genotype-phenotype mapping, yielding the potential to elucidate empirical landscapes and their resulting evolutionary processes in a manner complementary to existing computational studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, C.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scarpino, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.03.471063</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A family of fitness landscapes modeled through gene regulatory networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.09.471981v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Immobilization of C. elegans on cultivation plates by thermoelectric cooling for high-throughput subcellular-resolution microscopy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.09.471981v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite its profound impact on biology, most high-resolution in vivo microscopy approaches remain low throughput because current immobilization techniques require significant manual effort. We greatly accelerate imaging of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans by implementing a simple cooling approach to easily immobilize entire populations directly on their cultivation plates. We optimize and characterize cooling immobilization. Counterintuitively, relatively warmer temperatures immobilize animals significantly more effectively than colder temperatures utilized in prior studies. This enhanced immobilization enables clear submicron-resolution fluorescence imaging, which is challenging to achieve with most current immobilization techniques. We demonstrate 64x magnification 3D imaging and timelapse recording of neurons in adults and embryos without motion blur. Compared to standard azide immobilization, cooling immobilization reduces the animal preparation and recovery time by >98%, significantly increasing experimental speed. By obviating individual animal manipulation, our approach could also empower automated imaging of large C. elegans populations within standard experimental setups and workflows.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaklitsch, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grooms, N. W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schulting, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.09.471981</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Immobilization of C. elegans on cultivation plates by thermoelectric cooling for high-throughput subcellular-resolution microscopy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.16.472997v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dopamine and GPCR-mediated modulation of DN1 clock neurons gates the circadian timing of sleep 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.16.472997v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The metronome-like circadian regulation of sleep timing must still adapt to an uncertain environment. Recent studies in Drosophila indicate that neuromodulation not only plays a key role in clock neuron synchronization but also affects interactions between the clock network and brain sleep centers. We show here that the targets of neuromodulators, G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), are highly enriched in the fly brain circadian clock network. Single cell sequencing indicates that they are not only differentially expressed but also define clock neuron identity. We generated a comprehensive guide library to mutagenize individual GPCRs in specific neurons and verified the strategy with a targeted sequencing approach. Combined with a behavioral screen, the mutagenesis strategy revealed a novel role of dopamine in sleep regulation by identifying two dopamine receptors and a clock neuron subpopulation that gate the timing of sleep.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schlichting, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richhariya, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herndon, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lenh, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abruzzi, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosbash, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.16.472997</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dopamine and GPCR-mediated modulation of DN1 clock neurons gates the circadian timing of sleep]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.18.473275v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Quantifying the patterns of metabolic plasticity and heterogeneity along the epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal spectrum in cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.18.473275v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cancer metastasis is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality and the process of Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) is crucial for cancer metastasis. Either a partial or complete EMT have been reported to influence the metabolic plasticity of cancer cells in terms of switching among oxidative phosphorylation, fatty acid oxidation and glycolysis pathways. However, a comprehensive analysis of these major metabolic pathways their associations with EMT across different cancers is lacking. Here, we analyse more than 180 cancer cell datasets and show diverse associations of these metabolic pathways with the EMT status of cancer cells. Our bulk data analysis shows that EMT generally positively correlates with glycolysis but negatively with oxidative phosphorylation and fatty acid metabolism. These correlations are also consistent at the level of their molecular master regulators, namely AMPK and HIF1. Yet, these associations are shown to not be universal. Analysis of singlecell data of EMT induction shows dynamic changes along the different axes of metabolic pathways, consistent with general trends seen in bulk samples. Together, our results reveal underlying patterns of metabolic plasticity and heterogeneity as cancer cells traverse through the epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal spectrum of states.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Muralidharan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sahoo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saha, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chandran, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Majumdar, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.18.473275</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Quantifying the patterns of metabolic plasticity and heterogeneity along the epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal spectrum in cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.20.472858v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MIAAIM: Multi-omics image integration and tissue state mapping using topological data analysis and cobordism learning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.20.472858v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
High-parameter tissue imaging enables detailed molecular analysis of single cells in their spatial environment. However, the comprehensive characterization and mapping of tissue states through multimodal imaging across different physiological and pathological conditions requires data integration across multiple imaging systems. Here, we introduce MIAAIM (Multi-omics Image Alignment and Analysis by Information Manifolds) a modular, reproducible computational framework for aligning data across bioimaging technologies, modeling continuities in tissue states, and translating multimodal measures across tissue types. We demonstrate MIAAIMs workflows across diverse imaging platforms, including histological stains, imaging mass cytometry, and mass spectrometry imaging, to link cellular phenotypic states with molecular microenvironments in clinical biopsies from multiple tissue types with high cellular complexity. MIAAIM provides a robust foundation for the development of computational methods to integrate multimodal, high-parameter tissue imaging data and enable downstream computational and statistical interrogation of tissue states.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hess, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ilies, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schapiro, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iskra, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abdelmoula, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Regan, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Theocharidis, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Veves, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agar, N. Y. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sluder, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poznansky, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reeves, P. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sirbulescu, R. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-12-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.12.20.472858</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MIAAIM: Multi-omics image integration and tissue state mapping using topological data analysis and cobordism learning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-12-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.03.474815v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Virtually the same? Evaluating the effectiveness of remote undergraduate research experiences 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.03.474815v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In-person undergraduate research experiences (UREs) promote students integration into careers in life science research. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted institutions hosting summer URE programs to offer them remotely, raising questions about whether undergraduates who participate in remote research can experience scientific integration. To address this, we investigated indicators of scientific integration for students who participated in remote life science URE programs in summer 2020. We found that these students experienced gains in their scientific self-efficacy and scientific identity similar to results reported for in-person UREs. We also found that these students perceived high benefits and low costs of doing research at the outset of their programs, and their perceptions did not change despite the remote circumstances. Yet, their perceptions differed by program, indicating that programs differentially affected students perceptions of the costs of doing research. Finally, we observed that students with prior research experience made greater gains in self-efficacy and identity, as well as in their perceptions of the alignment of their values with those of the scientific community, in comparison to students with no prior research experience. This finding suggests that additional programming may be needed for undergraduates with no prior experience to benefit from remote research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hess, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erickson, O. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cole, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isaacs, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez-Clare, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arnold, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Augustus-Wallace, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayoob, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berkowitz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Branchaw, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burgio, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cannon, C. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ceballos, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coller, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Disney, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doze, V. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eggers, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferguson, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gray, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenberg, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffmann, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jensen-Ryan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kao, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keene, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kowalko, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mathis, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Minkara, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murren, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ondrechen, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ordonez, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osano, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padilla-Crespo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palchoudhury, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qin, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez-Lugo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reithel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaw, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, R. J</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.03.474815</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Virtually the same? Evaluating the effectiveness of remote undergraduate research experiences]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.10.475762v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Magnetic Temporal Interference for Noninvasive Focal Brain Stimulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.10.475762v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Non-invasive stimulation of deep brain regions has been a major goal for neuroscience and neuromodulation in the past three decades. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), for instance, cannot target deep regions in the brain without activating the overlying tissues and has a poor spatial resolution. In this manuscript, we propose a new concept that relies on the temporal interference of two high-frequency magnetic fields generated by two electromagnetic solenoids. To illustrate the concept, custom solenoids were fabricated and optimized to generate temporal interfering electric fields for rodent brain stimulation. C-Fos expression was used to track neuronal activation. C-Fos expression was not present in regions impacted by only one high-frequency magnetic field indicating ineffective recruitment of neural activity in non-target regions. In contrast, regions impacted by two fields that interfere to create a low-frequency envelope display a strong increase in c-Fos expression. Therefore, this magnetic temporal interference solenoid-based system provides a framework to perform further stimulation studies that would investigate the advantages it could bring over conventional TMS systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khalifa, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abrishami, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zaeimbashi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coughlin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodger, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cash, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.10.475762</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Magnetic Temporal Interference for Noninvasive Focal Brain Stimulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.12.476124v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
BlenderPhotonics - a versatile environment for 3-D complex bio-tissue modeling and light transport simulations based on Blender 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.12.476124v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceRapid advances in biophotonics techniques require quantitative, model-based computational approaches to obtain functional and structural information from increasingly complex and multi-scaled anatomies. The lack of efficient tools to accurately model tissue structures and subsequently perform quantitative multi-physics modeling greatly impedes the clinical translation of these modalities.

AimWhile the mesh-based Monte Carlo (MMC) method expands our capabilities in simulating complex tissues by using tetrahedral meshes, the generation of such domains often requires specialized meshing tools such as Iso2Mesh. Creating a simplified and intuitive interface for tissue anatomical modeling and optical simulations is essential towards making these advanced modeling techniques broadly accessible to the user community.

ApproachWe responded to the above challenge by combining the powerful, open-source 3-D modeling software, Blender, with state-of-the-art 3-D mesh generation and MC simulation tools, utilizing the interactive graphical user interface (GUI) in Blender as the front-end to allow users to create complex tissue mesh models, and subsequently launch MMC light simulations.

ResultsHere we present a tutorial to our newly developed Python-based Blender add-on - BlenderPhotonics - to interface with Iso2Mesh and MMC, allowing users to create, configure and refine complex simulation domains and run hardware-accelerated 3-D light simulations with only a few clicks. We provide a comprehensive introduction to this new tool and walk readers through 5 examples, ranging from simple shapes to sophisticated realistic tissue models.

ConclusionBlenderPhotonics is user-friendly and open-source, leveraging the vastly rich ecosystem of Blender. It wraps advanced modeling capabilities within an easy-to-use and interactive interface. The latest software can be downloaded at http://mcx.space/bp.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.12.476124</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[BlenderPhotonics - a versatile environment for 3-D complex bio-tissue modeling and light transport simulations based on Blender]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.13.476208v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Von Willebrand factor A1 domain affinity for GPIbα and stability are differentially regulated by its O-glycosylated N-linker and C-linker 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.13.476208v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hemostasis in the arterial circulation is mediated by binding of the A1 domain of the ultralong protein von Willebrand factor to GPIb on platelets to form a platelet plug. A1 is activated by tensile force on VWF concatemers imparted by hydrodynamic drag force. The A1 core is protected from force-induced unfolding by a long-range disulfide that links cysteines near its N and C-termini. The O-glycosylated linkers between A1 and its neighboring domains, which transmit tensile force to A1, are reported to regulate A1 activation for binding to GPIb, but the mechanism is controversial and incompletely defined. Here, we study how these linkers, and their polypeptide and O-glycan moieties, regulate A1 affinity by measuring affinity, kinetics, thermodynamics, hydrogen deuterium exchange (HDX), and unfolding by temperature and urea. The N-linker lowers A1 affinity 40-fold with a stronger contribution from its O-glycan than polypeptide moiety. The N-linker also decreases HDX in specific regions of A1 and increases thermal stability and the energy gap between its native state and an intermediate state, which is observed in urea-induced unfolding. The C-linker also decreases affinity of A1 for GPIb, but in contrast to the N-linker, has no significant effect on HDX or A1 stability. Among different models for A1 activation, our data are consistent with the model that the intermediate state has high affinity for GPIb, which is induced by tensile force physiologically and regulated allosterically by the N-linker.

Impact StatementBoth the polypeptide and attached O-glycans N-terminal to the A1 domain in von Willebrand factor lower its affinity for its ligand GPIb on platelets, its stability, and structural dynamics and decrease population of a high-affinity, intermediate state in unfolding.

Key pointsO_LILigand-binding affinity of A1 and the stability of its native state is regulated by an N-terminal interdomain, O-glycosylated linker
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Iacob, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonazza, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hudson, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Springer, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.13.476208</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Von Willebrand factor A1 domain affinity for GPIbα and stability are differentially regulated by its O-glycosylated N-linker and C-linker]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.13.476227v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Transverse and axial resolution of femtosecond laser ablation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.13.476227v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Femtosecond lasers are capable of precise ablation that produce surgical dissections in vivo. The transverse and axial resolution of the laser damage inside the bulk are important parameters of ablation. The transverse resolution is routinely quantified, but the axial resolution is more difficult to measure and is less commonly performed. In some in vivo samples, fine dissections can also be difficult to visualize, but in vitro samples may allow clear imaging. Using a 1040-nm, 400-fs pulsed laser, we performed ablation inside agarose and glass, producing clear and persistent damage spots. Near the ablation threshold of both media, we found that the axial resolution is similar to the transverse resolution. We also ablated neuron cell bodies and fibers in C. elegans and demonstrate submicrometer resolution in both the transverse and axial directions, consistent with our results in agarose and glass. Using simple yet rigorous methods, we define the resolution of laser ablation in transparent media along all directions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grooms, N. W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.13.476227</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Transverse and axial resolution of femtosecond laser ablation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.13.476270v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Graphics processing unit-accelerated Monte Carlo simulation of polarized light in complex three-dimensional media 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.13.476270v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceMonte Carlo (MC) methods have been applied for studying interactions between polarized light and biological tissues, but most existing MC codes supporting polarization modeling can only simulate homogeneous or multi-layered domains, resulting in approximations when handling realistic tissue structures.

AimOver the past decade, the speed of MC simulations has seen dramatic improvement with massively-parallel computing techniques. Developing hardware-accelerated MC simulation algorithms that can accurately model polarized light inside 3-D heterogeneous tissues can greatly expand the utility of polarization in biophotonics applications.

ApproachHere we report a highly efficient polarized MC algorithm capable of modeling arbitrarily complex media defined over a voxelated domain. Each voxel of the domain can be associated with spherical scatters of various radii and densities. The Stokes vector of each simulated photon packet is updated through photon propagation, creating spatially resolved polarization measurements over the detectors or domain surface.

ResultsWe have implemented this algorithm in our widely disseminated MC simulator, Monte Carlo eXtreme (MCX). It is validated by comparing with a reference CPU-based simulator in both homogeneous and layered domains, showing excellent agreement and a 931-fold speedup.

ConclusionThe polarization-enabled MCX (pMCX) offers biophotonics community an efficient tool to explore polarized light in bio-tissues, and is freely available at http://mcx.space/.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacques, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramella-Roman, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.13.476270</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Graphics processing unit-accelerated Monte Carlo simulation of polarized light in complex three-dimensional media]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.19.477008v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Framework for Denoising Monte Carlo Photon Transport Simulations Using Deep Learning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.19.477008v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceThe Monte Carlo (MC) method is widely used as the gold-standard for modeling light propagation inside turbid media like human tissues, but combating its inherent stochastic noise requires one to simulate large number photons, resulting in high computational burdens.

AimWe aim to develop an effective image denoising technique using deep learning (DL) to dramatically improve low-photon MC simulation result quality, equivalently bringing further acceleration to the MC method.

ApproachWe have developed a cascade-network combining DnCNN with UNet, in the meantime, extended a range of established image denoising neural-network architectures, including DnCNN, UNet, DRUNet, and ResMCNet, in handling three-dimensional (3-D) MC data and compared their performances against model-based denoising algorithms. We have also developed a simple yet effective approach to create synthetic datasets that can be used to train DL based MC denoisers.

ResultsOverall, DL based image denoising algorithms exhibit significantly higher image quality improvements over traditional model-based denoising algorithms. Among the tested DL denoisiers, our Cascade network yields a 14 - 19 dB improvement in signal-noise ratio (SNR), which is equivalent to simulating 25 x to 78 x more photons. Other DL-based methods yielded similar results, with our method performing noticeably better with low-photon inputs, and ResMCNet along with DRUNet performing better with high-photon inputs. Our Cascade network achieved the highest quality when denoising complex domains, including brain and mouse atlases.

ConclusionIncorporating state-of-the-art DL denoising techniques can equivalently reduce the computation time of MC simulations by one to two orders of magnitude. Our open-source MC denoising codes and data can be freely accessed at http://mcx.space/.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Raayai Ardakani, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaeli, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.19.477008</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Framework for Denoising Monte Carlo Photon Transport Simulations Using Deep Learning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.20.475618v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Found in translation: Microproteins are a new class of potential host cell impurity in mAb drug products 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.20.475618v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are used to produce almost 90% of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The annotation of non-canonical translation events in these cellular factories remains incomplete, limiting not only our ability to study CHO cell biology but also detect host cell protein (HCP) contaminants in the final mAb drug product. We utilised ribosome footprint profiling (Ribo-seq) to identify novel open reading frames (ORFs) including N-terminal extensions and thousands of short ORFs (sORFs) predicted to encode microproteins. Mass spectrometry-based HCP analysis of four commercial mAb drug products using the extended protein sequence database revealed the presence of microprotein impurities for the first time. We also show that microprotein abundance varies with growth phase and can be affected by the cell culture environment. In addition, our work provides a vital resource to facilitate future studies of non-canonical translation as well as the regulation of protein synthesis in CHO cell lines.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Castro-Rivadeneyra, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tzani, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelly, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strasser, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guapo, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tierney, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clynes, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karger, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barron, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bones, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clarke, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.20.475618</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Found in translation: Microproteins are a new class of potential host cell impurity in mAb drug products]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.24.477528v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genomics-based annotations help unveil the molecular composition of edible plants 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.24.477528v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Given the important role food plays in health and well-being, the past decades have seen considerable experimental efforts dedicated to mapping the chemical composition of food ingredients. As the composition of raw food is genetically predetermined, here we ask, to what degree can we rely on genome-associated metabolic annotations to predict the chemical composition of natural ingredients? To that end, we developed an approach to unveil the chemical composition of 75 edible plants genomes, finding that genome-associated functional annotations substantially increase the number of compounds linked to specific plants. To account for the gap between the metabolic potential represented by functional annotations and the compounds likely to be accumulated and detected experimentally, we employed a predictive thermodynamic feasibility approach to systematically identify compounds that are likely to accumulate in plants. To quantify the accuracy of our predictions, we performed untargeted metabolomics on 13 plants, allowing us to experimentally confirm the detectability of the predicted compounds. For example, we observed 59 potentially novel compounds predicted and experimentally detected in corn. Our study shows that the application of genome-associated functional annotations can lead to an integrated metabologenomics platform capable of unveiling the chemical composition of edible plants and the biochemical pathways responsible for the observed compounds.

Author SummaryNutrition and well-being take a central role in todays high pace life, but how much do we really know about the food we eat? Here, we harness existing metabolic knowledge encrypted in staple food ingredients genome to help us explore the composition of raw edible plants. We first show the benefit and value of looking into genome-associated functional annotations on a wide scale. Next, we rely on new experimental data to develop a framework that helps us reveal new, potentially bioactive compounds in staple food ingredients. This has significance in, first, extending current food composition knowledge and second in discovering newly detected bioactive compounds, shedding light on the potential impacts of common food ingredients beyond their nutritional value as described in food labels. Finally, we show that staple foods that are already included in our daily diets might have the potential to contribute to our well-being.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ofaim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menichetti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sebek, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-01-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.01.24.477528</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genomics-based annotations help unveil the molecular composition of edible plants]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-01-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.01.478655v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Interphase chromosomes of the Aedes aegypti mosquito are liquid crystalline and can sense mechanical cues 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.01.478655v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We use data-driven physical simulations to study the three-dimensional architecture of the Aedes aegypti genome. Hi-C maps exhibit both a broad diagonal and compart-mentalization with telomeres and centromeres clustering together. Physical modeling reveals that these observations correspond to an ensemble of 3D chromosomal structures that are folded over and partially condensed. Clustering of the centromeres and telomeres near the nuclear lamina appears to be a necessary condition for the formation of the observed structures. Further analysis of the mechanical properties of the genome reveals that the chromosomes of Aedes aegypti, by virtue of their atypical structural organization, are highly sensitive to the deformation of the nuclei. This last finding provides a possible physical mechanism linking mechanical cues to gene regulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Contessoto, V. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dudchenko, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aiden, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wolynes, P. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.02.01.478655</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Interphase chromosomes of the Aedes aegypti mosquito are liquid crystalline and can sense mechanical cues]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.02.478753v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A natural fusion of flavodiiron, rubredoxin, and NADH:rubredoxin oxidoreductase domains is the highly efficient water-forming oxidase of T. vaginalis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.02.478753v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Microaerophilic pathogens such as Giardia lamblia and Trichomonas vaginalis have robust oxygen consumption systems to detoxify oxygen and maintain the intracellular redox balance. This oxygen consumption is a result of the H2O-forming NADH oxidase activity of two distinct flavin-containing systems: H2O-forming NADH oxidases (NOXes) and multicomponent flavodiiron proteins (FDPs). Both systems are not membrane-bound and recycle NADH into oxidized NAD+ while simultaneously removing O2 from the local environment, making them crucial for the survival of human microaerophilic pathogens. In this study, using bioinformatic and biochemical analysis, we show that T. vaginalis lacks a NOX-like enzyme, and instead harbors three proteins that are very close in their amino acid sequence and represent a natural fusion between N-terminal FDP, central rubredoxin and C-terminal NADH:rubredoxin oxidoreductase domains. We demonstrate that this natural fusion protein with fully populated flavin redox centers unlike a "stand-alone" FDP (also present in T. vaginalis), directly accepts reducing equivalents of NADH to catalyze the four-electron reduction of O2 to water within a single polypeptide and with an extremely high turnover. Using single particle electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) we present structural insight into the spatial organization of the FDP core within this multidomain fusion protein. Our studies represent an important addition to our understanding of systems that allow human protozoan parasites to maintain their optimal redox balance and survive transient exposure to oxic conditions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Abdulaziz, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bell, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rashid, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heacock, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skinner, O. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yaseen, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chao, L. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mootha, V. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pierik, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cracan, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-02-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.02.02.478753</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A natural fusion of flavodiiron, rubredoxin, and NADH:rubredoxin oxidoreductase domains is the highly efficient water-forming oxidase of T. vaginalis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-02-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.14.480319v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comparative miRNA Transcriptomics of Mouse and Macaque Reveals Cytoskeleton is An Inhibitor for C. neoformans Invasion into Brain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.14.480319v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cryptococcal meningoencephalitis is an emerging infection shifted from primarily ART-naive to being ART-experienced HIV/AIDS patients, COVID-19 patients and also in immune competent individuals, mainly caused by the human opportunistic pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, yet mechanisms of the brain or CNS dissemination remain to elucidate, which is the deadest process for the disease. Meanwhile, illustrations of clinically relevant responses in cryptococcosis were limited, as the low availabilities of clinical samples. In this study, macaque and mouse infection models were employed and miRNA-mRNA transcriptomes were performed and combined, which revealed cytoskeleton, a major feather in HIV/AIDS patients, was a centric pathway regulated in both two infection models. Notably, assays of clinical immune cells confirmed an enhanced "Trojan Horse" in HIV/AIDS patients, which can be shut down by cytoskeleton inhibitors. Furthermore, we identified a novel enhancer for macrophage "Trojan Horse", myocilin, and an enhanced fungal burden was achieved in brains of MYOC transgenic mice. Taking together, this study reveals fundamental roles of cytoskeleton and MYOC in blocking fungal CNS dissemination, which not only helps to understand the high prevalence of cryptococcal meningitis in HIV/AIDS, but also facilitates the development of novel drugs for therapies of meningoencephalitis caused by C. neoformans and other pathogenic microorganisms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Du, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suo, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tian, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>An, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geng, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-02-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.02.14.480319</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comparative miRNA Transcriptomics of Mouse and Macaque Reveals Cytoskeleton is An Inhibitor for C. neoformans Invasion into Brain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-02-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.28.482402v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Shaping the Genome via Lengthwise Compaction, Phase Separation, and Lamina Adhesion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.28.482402v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The link between genomic structure and biological function is yet to be consolidated, it is, however, clear that physical manipulation of the genome, driven by the activity of a variety of proteins, is a crucial step. To understand the consequences of the physical forces underlying genome organization, we build a coarse-grained polymer model of the genome, featuring three fundamentally distinct classes of interactions: lengthwise compaction, i.e., compaction of chromosomes along its contour, self-adhesion among epigenetically similar genomic segments, and adhesion of chromosome segments to the nuclear envelope or lamina. We postulate that these three types of interactions sufficiently represent the concerted action of the different proteins organizing the genome architecture and show that an interplay among these interactions can recapitulate the architectural variants observed across the tree of life. The model elucidates how an interplay of forces arising from the three classes of genomic interactions can drive drastic, yet predictable, changes in the global genome architecture, and makes testable predictions. We posit that precise control over these interactions in vivo is key to the regulation of genome architecture.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Brahmachari, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contessoto, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.02.28.482402</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Shaping the Genome via Lengthwise Compaction, Phase Separation, and Lamina Adhesion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.04.482999v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Blinding efficacy and adverse events following repeated transcranial alternating current, direct current, and random noise stimulation. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.04.482999v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
As transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) protocols advance, assumptions underlying the technique need to be retested to ensure they still hold. Whilst the safety of stimulation has been demonstrated mainly for a small number of sessions, and small sample size, adverse events (AEs) following multiple sessions remain largely untested. Similarly, whilst blinding procedures are typically assumed to be effective, the effect of multiple stimulation sessions on the efficacy of blinding procedures also remains under question. This is especially relevant in multisite projects where small unintentional variations in protocol could lead to inter-site difference. We report AE and blinding data from 1,019 participants who received up to 11 semi-consecutive sessions of active or sham transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), direct current stimulation (tDCS), and random noise stimulation (tRNS), at 4 sites in the UK and US. We found that AEs were often best predicted by factors other than tES, such as testing site or session number. Results from the blinding analysis suggested that blinding was less effective for tDCS and tACS than tRNS. The occurrence of AEs did not appear to be linked to tES despite the use of smaller electrodes or repeated delivery. However, blinding efficacy was impacted in tES conditions with higher cutaneous sensation, highlighting a need for alternative stimulation blinding protocols. This may be increasingly necessary in studies wishing to deliver stimulation with higher intensities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sheffield, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rampersad, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brem, A.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mansfield, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Orhan, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dillard, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKanna, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plessow, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thompson, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santarnecchi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pascual-Leone, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pavel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mathan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen Kadosh, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.04.482999</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Blinding efficacy and adverse events following repeated transcranial alternating current, direct current, and random noise stimulation.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.04.483050v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stimulus-dependent depth constancy during head tilt 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.04.483050v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Stereopsis is traditionally measured with noise-based stereo tests while the observer views the test in primary gaze. We investigated the effect of stimulus sparseness and axial variations of interocular disparity induced via head rotations.

First, we measured stereoacuity using a 4-Alternative-Forced-Choice (4-AFC) task with three uncrossed and one crossed disparity bandpass-filtered circles on a passive-3-D-monitor. Ten binocularly-normal adults fixated a central cross and clicked on the circle withcrossed disparity for forty trials/condition. Observers adopted head tilts of 0{degrees} or {+/-}20{degrees} pitch, roll, or yaw, enforced with an innertial measurement unit and fixation enforced with an eye tracker. Next, we measured stereoacuity in 8 adults while either the head (H), monitor (M), or both (B) were tilted 0{degrees}, {+/-}22.5{degrees}, or {+/-}45{degrees} roll in random order (eighty trials/condition) using a 4-AFC task and random-dot stimuli. Head tilts did not signifcantly alter stereoacuity using narrow-band stimuli(p>0.05), despite that IPDs and the axis of disparity were differentially affected by the tilts. However, for random dot stimuli, stereoacuity decreased with increasing orientation difference between the head and monitor (H and M: p<0.05; B: p>0.05].

Head tilt decreases IPD and rotates the axis of interocular disparity, however, these manipulations affect stereoacuity when measured with noise stimuli but not with sparse stimuli. The results are consistent with a vestibular input to stereoscopic disparity processing that can be detected by sparse stimuli but is masked by dense stimuli. The results have implications for natural vision and for clinical screening in patients with abnormal head posture.

Significance statementDepth perception is a critical feature of human vision and it is thought that the ability to perceive stereoscopic depth is bound to an essentially eye-fixed, horizontal disparity of each image that rapidly deteriorates away from that limited horizontal axis. In a set of head tilt experiments, we varied the orientations of stereoscopic images and demonstrate that stereoacuity remains constant when deploying sparse narrow-band stimuli, and only worsens when using fine-detailed noise stimuli that mask off-axis disparities. These results shine new light upon the debate of neuroplasticity of stereo vision. Moreover, the results are consequential for diagnosis and treatment in people with atypical head- and eye alignment, such as for patients with torticollis or strabismus.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Skerswetat, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caoli, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.04.483050</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stimulus-dependent depth constancy during head tilt]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.09.483678v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Automated classification of estrous stage in rodents using deep learning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.09.483678v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The rodent estrous cycle modulates a range of biological functions, from gene expression to behavior. The cycle is typically divided into four stages, each characterized by distinct hormone concentration profiles. Given the difficulty of repeatedly sampling plasma steroid hormones from rodents, the primary method for classifying estrous stage is by identifying vaginal epithelial cell types. However, manual classification of epithelial cell samples is time-intensive and variable, even amongst expert investigators. Here, we use a deep learning approach to achieve classification accuracy at expert levels in a matter of seconds. Due to the heterogeneity and breadth of our input dataset, our deep learning approach ("EstrousNet") is highly generalizable across rodent species, stains, and subjects. The EstrousNet algorithm exploits the temporal dimension of the hormonal cycle by fitting classifications to an archetypal estrous cycle, highlighting possible misclassifications and flagging anestrus phases (e.g., pseudopregnancy). EstrousNet allows for rapid estrous cycle staging, improving the ability of investigators to consider endocrine state in their rodent studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wolcott, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sit, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raimondi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hodges, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shansky, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Galea, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ostroff, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goard, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.09.483678</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Automated classification of estrous stage in rodents using deep learning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.11.484005v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Microengineered Brain-Chip to Model Neuroinflammation in Humans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.11.484005v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Species differences in the brain and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) biology hamper the translation from animal models to humans and impede the development of specific therapeutics for brain diseases. Here we present a human Brain-Chip engineered to recapitulate critical aspects of the complex brain cell-cell interactions that mediate neuroinflammation development. Our human organotypic microphysiological system (MPS) includes endothelial-like cells, pericytes, glia, and cortical neurons and maintains BBB permeability at in vivo relevant levels, providing a significant improvement in complexity and clinical mimicry compared to previous MPS models. This is the first report of a Brain-Chip with an RNA expression profile close to that of the adult human cortex and that demonstrates advantages over Transwell culture. Through perfusion of TNF-, we recreated key inflammatory features, such as glia activation, the release of proinflammatory cytokines, and increased barrier permeability. Our model may provide a reliable tool for mechanistic studies in neuron-glial interactions and dysregulation of BBB function during neuroinflammation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pediaditakis, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kodella, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manatakis, D. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Le, C. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barthakur, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sorets, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gravanis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ewart, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubin, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manolakos, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinojosa, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karalis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.11.484005</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Microengineered Brain-Chip to Model Neuroinflammation in Humans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.16.484655v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Prioritized single-cell proteomics reveals molecular and functional polarization across primary macrophages 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.16.484655v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Major aims of single-cell proteomics include increasing the consistency, sensitivity, and depth of protein quantification, especially for proteins and modifications of biological interest. To simultaneously advance all these aims, we developed prioritized Single Cell ProtEomics (pSCoPE). pSCoPE consistently analyzes thousands of prioritized peptides across all single cells (thus increasing data completeness) while analyzing identifiable peptides at full duty-cycle, thus increasing proteome depth. These strategies increased the sensitivity, data completeness, and proteome coverage over 2-fold. The gains enabled quantifying protein variation in untreated and lipopolysaccharide-treated primary macrophages. Within each condition, proteins covaried within functional sets, including phagosome maturation and proton transport. This protein covariation within a treatment condition was similar across the treatment conditions and coupled to phenotypic variability in endocytic activity. pSCoPE also enabled quantifying proteolytic products, suggesting a gradient of cathepsin activities within a treatment condition. pSCoPE is freely available and widely applicable, especially for analyzing proteins of interest without sacrificing proteome coverage. Support for pSCoPE is available at: scp.slavovlab.net/pSCoPE



O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=76 SRC="FIGDIR/small/484655v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huffman, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wichmann, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>di Gioia, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Borriello, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Derks, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emmott, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petelski, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perlman, D. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cox, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zanoni, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.16.484655</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Prioritized single-cell proteomics reveals molecular and functional polarization across primary macrophages]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.17.484479v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evidence-based calibration of computational tools for missense variant pathogenicity classification and ClinGen recommendations for clinical use of PP3/BP4 criteria 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.17.484479v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recommendations from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics and the Association for Molecular Pathology (ACMG/AMP) for interpreting sequence variants specify the use of computational predictors as Supporting level of evidence for pathogenicity or benignity using criteria PP3 and BP4, respectively. However, score intervals defined by tool developers, and ACMG/AMP recommendations that require the consensus of multiple predictors, lack quantitative support. Previously, we described a probabilistic framework that quantified the strengths of evidence (Supporting, Moderate, Strong, Very Strong) within ACMG/AMP recommendations. We have extended this framework to computational predictors and introduce a new standard that converts a tools scores to PP3 and BP4 evidence strengths. Our approach is based on estimating the local positive predictive value and can calibrate any computational tool or other continuous-scale evidence on any variant type. We estimate thresholds (score intervals) corresponding to each strength of evidence for pathogenicity and benignity for thirteen missense variant interpretation tools, using carefully assembled independent data sets. Most tools achieved Supporting evidence level for both pathogenic and benign classification using newly established thresholds. Multiple tools reached score thresholds justifying Moderate and several reached Strong evidence levels. One tool reached Very Strong evidence level for benign classification on some variants. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations for evidence-based revisions of the PP3 and BP4 ACMG/AMP criteria using individual tools and future assessment of computational methods for clinical interpretation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pejaver, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byrne, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, B.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pagel, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mooney, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karchin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Donnell-Luria, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrison, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tavtigian, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenblatt, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Biesecker, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenner, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>ClinGen Sequence Variant Interpretation Working Group,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.17.484479</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evidence-based calibration of computational tools for missense variant pathogenicity classification and ClinGen recommendations for clinical use of PP3/BP4 criteria]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.21.485202v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuronal temperature perception induces specific defenses that enable C. elegans to cope with the enhanced reactivity of hydrogen peroxide at high temperature 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.21.485202v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hydrogen peroxide is the most common reactive chemical that organisms face on the microbial battlefield. The rate with which hydrogen peroxide damages biomolecules required for life increases with temperature, yet little is known about how organisms cope with this temperature-dependent threat. Here, we show that Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes use temperature information perceived by sensory neurons to cope with the temperature-dependent threat of hydrogen peroxide produced by the pathogenic bacterium Enterococcus faecium. These nematodes preemptively induce the expression of specific hydrogen peroxide defenses in response to perception of high temperature by a pair of sensory neurons. These neurons communicate temperature information to target tissues expressing those defenses via an insulin/IGF1 hormone. This strategy, which we call "enhancer sensing," is the first example of a multicellular organism inducing their defenses to a chemical when they sense an inherent enhancer of the reactivity of that chemical.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Servello, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fernandes, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eder, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, O. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oswal, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lindberg, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Derosiers, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sengupta, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stroustrup, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apfeld, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.21.485202</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuronal temperature perception induces specific defenses that enable C. elegans to cope with the enhanced reactivity of hydrogen peroxide at high temperature]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.22.485420v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identifying competition phenotypes in synthetic biochemical circuits 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.22.485420v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Synthetic gene circuits require cellular resources, which are often limited. This leads to competition for resources by different genes, which alter a synthetic genetic circuits behavior. However, the manner in which competition impacts behavior depends on the identity of the "bottleneck" resource which might be difficult to discern from input-output data. In this paper, we aim at classifying the mathematical structures of resource competition in biochemical circuits. We find that some competition structures can be distinguished by their response to different competitors or resource levels. Specifically, we show that some response curves are always linear, convex, or concave. Furthermore, high levels of certain resources protect the behavior from low competition, while others do not. We also show that competition phenotypes respond differently to various interventions. Such differences can be used to eliminate candidate competition mechanisms when constructing models based on given data. On the other hand, we show that different networks can display mathematically equivalent competition phenotypes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ali Al-Radhawi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Del Vecchio, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.22.485420</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identifying competition phenotypes in synthetic biochemical circuits]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.23.485369v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Signal and Measurement Considerations for Human Translation of Diffuse in vivo Flow Cytometry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.23.485369v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceDiffuse in vivo flow cytometry (DiFC) is an emerging technology for fluorescence detection of rare circulating cells directly in large deep-seated blood vessels in mice. Because DiFC uses highly scattered light, in principle it could be translated to human use. However, an open question is whether fluorescent signals from single cells would be detectable in human-scale anatomies.

AimSuitable blood vessels in a human wrist or forearm are at a depth of approximately 2-4 mm. The aim of this work was to study the impact of DiFC instrument geometry and wavelength on the detected DiFC signal and on the maximum depth of detection of a moving cell.

ApproachWe used Monte Carlo simulations to compute Jacobian (sensitivity) matrices for a range of source-detector separations and tissue optical properties over the visible and near infrared (NIR) spectrum. We performed experimental measurements with three available versions of DiFC (488 nm, 640 nm, and 780 nm), fluorescent microspheres, and tissue mimicking optical flow phantoms. We used both computational and experimental data to estimate the maximum depth of detection at each combination of settings.

Results and ConclusionsFor the DiFC detection problem, our analysis showed that for deep-seated blood vessels, the maximum sensitivity was obtained with NIR light (780 nm) and 3 mm source-and-detector separation. These results suggest that - in combination with a suitable molecularly targeted fluorescent probes - circulating cells and nanosensors could in principle be detectable in circulation in humans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ivich, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pace, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shumel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niedre, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.23.485369</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Signal and Measurement Considerations for Human Translation of Diffuse in vivo Flow Cytometry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.24.485654v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Suboptimal foraging decisions and involvement of the ventral tegmental area in human opioid addiction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.24.485654v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Addiction is marked by a tendency to exploit sources of reward despite diminishing returns. This behavior is aptly captured by animal patch-foraging models that have recently been extended to humans. Dopamine and norepinephrine centrally mediate addictive behavior and activity in both catecholaminergic systems is proposed to reflect the computations necessary for optimal foraging. However, the specific neural bases of excessive foraging and their role in human addiction are largely unknown. To address this gap, we studied the behavior of people with and without opioid use disorder (OUD) on a patch-foraging task in which they made serial decisions to "harvest" a depleting resource ("patch") for reward or incur a varying cost to "travel" to a replenished patch. In a subset of participants, we used high-resolution neuromelanin-sensitive MRI to image neuromelanin concentration, a proxy for long-term catecholaminergic function, in distinct dopaminergic nuclei (ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra subregions) and the noradrenergic locus coeruleus. While all participants were sensitive to the long-run reward rates of different patch-foraging environments, OUD participants stayed in reward patches longer than optimal--markedly overharvesting a source of reward despite its declining value--and this correlated with more chronic drug use. Overharvesting was selectively associated with lower neuromelanin signal in the ventral tegmental area but not other dopaminergic nuclei, nor the locus coeruleus. Our findings suggest that foraging decisions relevant to addiction involve a ventral-tegmental-area circuit that may signal reward rates in dynamic environments and implicate this circuit in maladaptive reward pursuit in human addiction to opioids.

Significance statementPatch-foraging provides a potentially important translational framework for understanding addictive behavior by revealing how maladaptive reward pursuit emerges in more ecologically valid decision contexts. Here, we show that the tendency to exploit sources of reward despite diminishing returns is associated with chronic drug use in people with opioid use disorder, a particularly devastating form of addiction. We further use neuromelanin-sensitive MRI, a neuroimaging measure of the long-term function of dopamine neurons, to reveal that variation in ventral tegmental area neuromelanin signal selectively underlies individual differences in this overharvesting bias. These findings establish a role for specific dopaminergic circuits in patch-foraging decisions and advance understanding of the neurobiology of human addiction to opioids that has so far eluded the field.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Raio, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Biernacki, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kapoor, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wengler, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonagura, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xue, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Constantino, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horga, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Konova, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.24.485654</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Suboptimal foraging decisions and involvement of the ventral tegmental area in human opioid addiction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.01.486735v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Actin turnover required for adhesion-independent bleb migration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.01.486735v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cell migration is critical for many vital processes, such as wound healing, as well as harmful processes, like cancer metastasis. Experiments have highlighted the diversity in migration strategies employed by cells in physiologically relevant environments. In 3D fibrous matrices and confinement between two surfaces, some cells migrate using round membrane protrusions, called blebs. In bleb-based migration, the role of substrate adhesion is thought to be minimal, and it remains unclear if a cell can migrate without any adhesion complexes. We present a 2D computational fluid-structure model of a cell using cycles of bleb expansion and retraction in a channel with several geometries. The cell model consists of a plasma membrane, an underlying actin cortex, and viscous cytoplasm. Cellular structures are immersed in viscous fluid which permeates them, and the fluid equations are solved using the method of regularized Stokeslets. Simulations show that the cell cannot effectively migrate when the actin cortex is modeled as a purely elastic material. We find that cells do migrate in rigid channels if actin turnover is included with a viscoelastic description for the cortex. Our study highlights the non-trivial relationship between cell rheology and its external environment during migration with cytoplasmic streaming.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Copos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strychalski, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.01.486735</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Actin turnover required for adhesion-independent bleb migration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.02.486649v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Active emulsions in living cell membranes driven by contractile stresses and transbilayer coupling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.02.486649v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The spatiotemporal organisation of proteins and lipids on the cell surface has direct functional consequences for signaling, sorting and endocytosis. Earlier studies have shown that multiple types of membrane proteins including transmembrane proteins that have cytoplasmic actin binding capacity and lipid-tethered GPI-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) form nanoscale clusters driven by active contractile flows generated by the actin cortex. To gain insight into the role of lipids in organizing membrane domains in living cells, we study the molecular interactions that promote the actively generated nanoclusters of GPI-APs and transmembrane proteins. This motivates a theoretical description, wherein a combination of active contractile stresses and transbilayer coupling drive the creation of active emulsions, mesoscale liquid ordered (lo) domains of the GPI-APs and lipids, at temperatures greater than equilibrium lipid-phase segregation. To test these ideas we use spatial imaging of homo-FRET combined with local membrane order and demonstrate that mesoscopic domains enriched in nanoclusters of GPI-APs are maintained by cortical actin activity and transbilayer interactions, and exhibit significant lipid order, consistent with predictions of the active composite model.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Saha, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Das, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patra, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anilkumar, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sil, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayor, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rao, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.02.486649</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Active emulsions in living cell membranes driven by contractile stresses and transbilayer coupling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.02.486840v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Thermal Effects on Neurons During Stimulation of the Brain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.02.486840v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
All artificial stimulation of the brain deposits thermal energy in the brain. This occurs through either Joule heating of the conductors carrying current through electrodes and magnetic coils, or through dissipation of energy in the conductive brain. Similarly, temperature affects all biological processes and chemical reactions. Although electrical interaction with brain tissue is inseparable from thermal effects when electrodes are used, magnetic induction enables us to separate Joule heating from induction effects by contrasting AC and DC driving of magnetic coils using the same energy deposition within the conductors. Since mammalian cortical neurons have no known sensitivity to static magnetic fields, and if there is no evidence of effect on spike timing to oscillating magnetic fields, we can presume that the induced electrical currents within the brain are below the molecular shot noise where any interaction with tissue is purely thermal. In this study, we examined a range of frequencies produced from micromagnetic coils operating below the molecular shot noise threshold for electrical interaction with single neurons. We found that small temperature increases and decreases of 1{degrees}C caused consistent transient suppression and excitation of neurons during temperature change. Numerical modeling of the biophysics demonstrated that the Na-K pump, and to a lesser extent the Nernst potential, could account for these transient effects. Such effects are dependent upon compartmental ion fluxes, and the rate of temperature change. A new bifurcation is described in the model dynamics that accounts for the transient suppression and excitation; in addition, we note the remarkable similarity of this bifurcations rate dependency with other thermal rate-dependent tipping points in planetary warming dynamics. Furthermore, bifurcations in the steady state dynamics leading to stable firing suppression are described for slightly higher temperatures. These experimental and theoretical findings demonstrate that stimulation of the brain must take into account small thermal effects that are ubiquitously present in electrical and magnetic stimulation. More sophisticated models of electrical current interaction with neurons combined with thermal effects will be required in order to more accurately enable model-based control of neuronal circuitry.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kadji, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whalen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ashourvan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Freeman, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fried, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tadigadapa, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schiff, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.02.486840</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Thermal Effects on Neurons During Stimulation of the Brain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.04.487009v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Human statistical learning dynamically shapes the hippocampal processing of temporal associations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.04.487009v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We investigated the neural basis of chunking during statistical learning (SL). Behavioral evidence suggests that a common mechanism in learning and memory can serve to combine smaller units into larger ones to facilitate sensory and higher-level processing. And yet, the neural underpinnings of this mechanism remain unclear. Drawing insights from previous findings of neural codes in the hippocampus, we propose a computational model to account for the temporal chunking process in SL for sequential inputs. We operationalize chunking into a hidden Markov model (HMM) that incorporates two core principles: (1) the hidden states represent serial order rather than specific visual features, and (2) the formation of temporal chunks leads to autocorrelated brain activity. We show with numeric simulations that the HMM can decode embedded triplet representations when both assumptions hold. Applying the HMM to functional neuroimaging data from subjects performing a visual SL task, we show that decoding was successful (1) for triplet sequences but not random sequences, (2) at the later stage but not earlier stage of learning, and (3) in the hippocampus but not in the early visual cortex. These results provide evidence for a hippocampal representation of generalized temporal structure emerged from sequential visual input, shedding light on the chunking mechanism for SL.

SignificanceIn statistical learning (SL), individuals develop internal representations of patterns after brief exposure to structured stimuli. People tend to recognize frequently co-occurring items as a single unit. This process, known as "chunking", is understood to play an important role in facilitating sensory processing for learning. However, its neural underpinnings remain unclear. In this study we draw insights from hippocampal coding theories and introduce a chunking model focusing on generalized presentations for SL. With functional neuroimaging data from human subjects performing a visual learning task, the chunking model successfully decoded the temporal regularities embedded in the sequential inputs. This model and related findings provide critical evidence for a chunking process underlying SL as well as its representation in the human hippocampus.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christiansen, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qi, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.04.487009</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Human statistical learning dynamically shapes the hippocampal processing of temporal associations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.18.488640v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
BCG vaccination of Diversity Outbred mice induces cross-reactive antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.18.488640v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, the only vaccine against tuberculosis, induces cross-protection against pathogens unrelated to Mycobacterium, including viruses. Epidemiological studies have identified potential benefits of BCG vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 infection. While BCGs heterologous effects have been widely attributable to trained immunity, we hypothesized BCG vaccination could induce cross-reactive antibodies against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan-Hu-1. The concentration of IgG reactive to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein from the sera of BCG-vaccinated, Diversity Outbred (DO) mice and C57BL/6J inbred mice was measured using ELISA. Sera from 10/15 BCG-vaccinated DO mice possessed more IgG reactive to recombinant spike protein than sera from BCG-vaccinated C57BL/6J mice and unvaccinated DO mice. Amino acid sequences common to BCG cell wall/membrane proteins and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were identified as potential antigen candidates for future study. These results imply a humoral mechanism, influenced by genotype, by which BCG vaccination could confer immunity to SARS-CoV-2.

Graphic Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=80 SRC="FIGDIR/small/488640v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ff9d16org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a2302dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@8ee2borg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@4c7b55_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Specht, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kurtz, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elkins, K. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beamer, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.18.488640</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[BCG vaccination of Diversity Outbred mice induces cross-reactive antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.18.488641v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The field of protein function prediction as viewed by different domain scientists 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.18.488641v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Experimental biologists, biocurators, and computational biologists all play a role in characterizing a proteins function. The discovery of protein function in the laboratory by experimental scientists is the foundation of our knowledge about proteins. Experimental findings are compiled in knowledge-bases by biocurators to provide standardized, readily accessible, and computationally amenable information. Computational biologists train their methods using these data to predict protein function and guide subsequent experiments. To understand the state of affairs in this ecosystem, centered here around protein function prediction, we surveyed scientists from these three constituent communities. Our objective was to understand their views on this research area, including the importance of the problem, the usefulness of the methods, the bottlenecks in the field, and the level of interaction between the communities. We show that the three core communities have common but also idiosyncratic perspectives on the field. Most strikingly, experimentalists rarely use modern prediction software, but when presented with predictions, report many to be surprising and useful. Ontologies appear to be highly valued by biocurators, less so by experimentalists and computational biologists, yet controlled vocabularies bridge the communities and simplify the prediction task. Additionally, many software tools are not readily accessible and the predictions presented to the users can be broad and uninformative. To meet both the social and technical challenges in the field, a more productive and meaningful interaction between members of the core communities is necessary.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ramola, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friedberg, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.18.488641</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The field of protein function prediction as viewed by different domain scientists]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.20.488911v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Two interdigitated fine-scale channels for encoding motion and stereopsis within the human magnocellular stream 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.20.488911v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In humans and non-human primates (NHPs), motion and stereopsis are processed within fine-scale cortical sites, including V2 thick stripes and their extensions into areas V3 and V3A that are believed to be under the influence of magnocellular stream. However, in both species, the functional organization (overlapping vs. interdigitated) of these sites remains unclear. Using high-resolution functional MRI (fMRI), we found evidence for two interdigitated channels within human extrastriate areas that contribute to processing motion and stereopsis. Across multiple experiments that included different stimuli (random dots, gratings, and natural scenes), the functional selectivity of these channels for motion vs. stereopsis remained consistent. Furthermore, an analysis of resting state functional connectivity revealed stronger functional connectivity within the two channels rather than between them. This finding provides a new perspective toward the mesoscale organization of the magnocellular stream within the human extrastriate visual cortex, beyond our previous understanding based on animal models.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kennedy, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hunter, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nasr, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.20.488911</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Two interdigitated fine-scale channels for encoding motion and stereopsis within the human magnocellular stream]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.28.489898v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Regenerating axolotl retinas regrow diverse cell types with modulation by Notch signaling and reconnect to the brain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.28.489898v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Some species successfully repair retinal injuries in contrast to non-regenerative mammalian retina. We show here that the Mexican axolotl salamander regrows its excised retina even in adulthood. During early regeneration, cell proliferation occurred in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). All dividing cells expressed Vimentin, and some also expressed Muller glia and neural progenitor cell marker Glast (Slc1a3), suggesting that regeneration is driven by RPE-derived retinal progenitor cells. Bulk RNA sequencing showed that genes associated with the extracellular matrix and angiogenesis were upregulated in early-to-mid retinal regeneration. The fully regenerated retina re-established nerve projections to the brain and contained all the original retinal cell types, including Muller glia. Regeneration of cellular diversity may be modulated by Notch signaling, as inhibiting Notch signaling in early regeneration promoted production of rod photoreceptors. Our study highlights the axolotl salamander as an advantageous model of adult tetrapod retinal regeneration and provides insights into its mechanisms.

SummaryWe demonstrate that adult Mexican axolotl salamanders regenerate retinas after a retinectomy. We also show some cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive axolotl retinal regeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yandulskaya, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ansaripour, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carrier, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.28.489898</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Regenerating axolotl retinas regrow diverse cell types with modulation by Notch signaling and reconnect to the brain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.30.490153v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Compressive stress drives adhesion-dependent unjamming transitions in breast cancer cell migration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.30.490153v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cellular unjamming is the collective fluidization of cell motion and has been linked to many biological processes, including development, wound repair, and tumor growth. In tumor growth, the uncontrolled proliferation of cancer cells in a confined space generates mechanical compressive stress. However, because multiple cellular and molecular mechanisms may be operating simultaneously, the role of compressive stress in unjamming transitions during cancer progression remains unknown. Here we investigate which mechanism dominates in a dense, mechanically stressed monolayer. We find that long-term mechanical compression triggers cell arrest in benign epithelial cells and enhances cancer cell migration in transitions correlated with cell shape, leading us to examine the contributions of cell-cell adhesion and substrate traction in shape-dependent unjamming transitions. We show that cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion regulates differential cellular responses to compressive stress and predominantly controls unjamming transitions in dense monolayers. Importantly, compressive stress does not induce the epithelial--mesenchymal transition in unjammed cells. Using traction force microscopy, traction forces are attenuated in compressed cells in the bulk of the monolayer regardless of cell type and motility. Intercellular adhesion thus is the dominant regulator of compression-induced unjamming transitions and may impact collective cell motion in tumor development and breast cancer progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cai, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bashirzadeh, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, S.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.30.490153</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Compressive stress drives adhesion-dependent unjamming transitions in breast cancer cell migration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.06.487898v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
NetAct: a computational platform to construct core transcription factor regulatory networks using gene activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.06.487898v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A major question in systems biology is how to identify the core gene regulatory circuit that governs the decision-making of a biological process. Here, we develop a computational platform, named NetAct, for constructing core transcription-factor regulatory networks using both transcriptomics data and literature-based transcription factor-target databases. NetAct robustly infers regulators activity using target expression, constructs networks based on transcriptional activity, and integrates mathematical modeling for validation. Our in-silico benchmark test shows that NetAct outperforms existing algorithms in inferring transcriptional activity and gene networks. We illustrate the application of NetAct to model networks driving TGF-{beta} induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition and macrophage polarization.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Su, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katebi, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kohar, V. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clauss, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gordin, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qin, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karuturi, R. K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.06.487898</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[NetAct: a computational platform to construct core transcription factor regulatory networks using gene activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.06.490948v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Messenger-RNA Modification Standards and Machine Learning Models Facilitate Absolute Site-Specific Pseudouridine Quantification 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.06.490948v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Enzyme-mediated chemical modifications to mRNA are important for fine-tuning gene expression, but they are challenging to quantify due to low copy number and limited tools for accurate detection. Existing studies have typically focused on the identification and impact of adenine modifications on mRNA (m6A and inosine) due to the availability of analytical methods. The pseudouridine ({Psi}) mRNA modification is also highly abundant but difficult to detect and quantify because there is no available antibody, it is mass silent, and maintains canonical basepairing with adenine. Nanopores may be used to directly identify {Psi} sites in RNAs using a systematically miscalled base, however, this approach is not quantitative and highly sequence dependent. In this work, we apply supervised machine learning models that are trained on sequence-specific, synthetic controls to endogenous transcriptome data and achieve the first quantitative {Psi} occupancy measurement in human mRNAs. Our supervised machine learning models reveal that for every site studied, different signal parameters are required to maximize {Psi} classification accuracy. We show that applying our model is critical for quantification, especially in low-abundance mRNAs. Our engine can be used to profile {Psi}-occupancy across cell types and cell states, thus providing critical insights about physiological relevance of {Psi} modification to mRNAs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Makhamreh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tavakoli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gamper, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nabizadehmashhadtoroghi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fallahi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, Y.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.06.490948</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Messenger-RNA Modification Standards and Machine Learning Models Facilitate Absolute Site-Specific Pseudouridine Quantification]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.10.491381v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Small-angle x-ray microdiffraction from fibrils embedded in tissue thin sections 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.10.491381v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) from fibrils embedded in a fixed, thin section of tissue includes contributions from the fibrils; the polymeric matrix surrounding the fibrils; other constituents of the tissue; and cross-terms due to the spatial correlation between fibrils and neighbouring molecules. This complex mixture severely limits the amount of information that can be extracted from scattering studies. However, availability of micro- and nano-beams has made possible measurement of scattering from very small volumes which, in some cases, may be dominated by a single fibrillar constituent. In those cases, information about the predominant species may be accessible. Nevertheless, even in these cases, the correlations between the positions of fibrils and other constituents have significant impact on the observed scattering. Here, we propose strategies to extract partial information about fibril structure and tissue organization on the basis of SAXS from samples of this type. We show that the spatial correlation function of the fibril in the direction perpendicular to the fibril axis can be computed and contains information about the predominant fibril structure and the organization of the surrounding tissue matrix. It has significant advantages over approaches based on techniques developed for x-ray solution scattering. We present examples of the calculation of correlation in different types of samples to demonstrate the kinds of information that can be obtained from these measurements.

SynopsisThe availability of micro- and nano- x-ray beams is making possible measurement of scattering from very small volumes, opening possibilities for deriving in situ structural information on fibrillar constituents in complex materials and tissues. This work outlines a set of strategies for confronting the formidable technical obstacles to extracting useful structural information from scattering derived from these materials.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nepal, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bashit, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makowski, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.10.491381</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Small-angle x-ray microdiffraction from fibrils embedded in tissue thin sections]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.11.491330v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Near-Infrared Diffuse In Vivo Flow Cytometry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.11.491330v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceDiffuse in vivo Flow Cytometry (DiFC) is an emerging technique for enumerating rare fluorescently labeled circulating cells non-invasively in the bloodstream. Thus far we have reported red and blue-green versions of DiFC. Use of near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent light would in principle allow use of DiFC in deeper tissues and would be compatible with emerging NIR fluorescence molecular contrast agents.

AimIn this work, we describe the design of a NIR-DiFC instrument and demonstrate its use in optical flow phantoms in vitro and in mice in vivo.

ApproachWe developed an improved optical fiber probe design for efficient collection of fluorescence from individual circulating cells, and efficient rejection of instrument autofluorescence. We built a NIR-DiFC instrument. We tested this with NIR fluorescent microspheres and cell lines labeled with OTL38 fluorescence contrast agent in a flow phantom model. We also tested NIR-DiFC in nude mice injected intravenously with OTL38-labeled L1210A cells.

ResultsNIR-DiFC allowed detection of CTCs in flow phantoms with mean signal to noise ratios (SNRs) of 19 to 32 dB. In mice, fluorescently-labeled CTCs were detectable with mean SNR of 26 dB. NIR-DiFC also exhibited orders significantly lower autofluorescence and false-alarm rates than blue-green DiFC.

ConclusionsNIR-DiFC allows use of emerging NIR contrast agents. This work could pave the way for future use of NIR-DiFC in humans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pace, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ivich, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marple, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niedre, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.11.491330</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Near-Infrared Diffuse In Vivo Flow Cytometry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.14.491940v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Intrinsic RNA targeting constrains the utility of CRISPR-Cas13 systems 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.14.491940v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
CRISPR-Cas13 systems have been adapted as versatile toolkits for RNA-related applications. Here we systematically evaluate the performance of several popular Cas13 family effectors (Cas13a, Cas13b and Cas13d) under lentiviral vectors and reveal surprisingly differential defects and characteristics of these systems. Using RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing, transcriptome profiling, biochemistry analysis, high-throughput CRISPR-Cas13 screening and machine learning approaches, we determine that each Cas13 system has its intrinsic RNA targets in mammalian cells. Viral process-related host genes can be targeted by Cas13 and affect production of fertile lentiviral particles, thereby restricting the utility of lentiviral Cas13 systems. Multiple RNase activities of Cas13 are involved in endogenous RNA targeting. Unlike target-induced nonspecific collateral effect, intrinsic RNA cleavage can be specific, target-independent and dynamically tuned by varied states of Cas13 nucleases. Our work provides guidance on appropriate use of lentiviral Cas13 systems and further raises cautions about intrinsic RNA targeting during Cas13-based basic and therapeutic applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.14.491940</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Intrinsic RNA targeting constrains the utility of CRISPR-Cas13 systems]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.16.492135v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Peripheral sensory neuron CB2 cannabinoid receptors are necessary for both CB2-mediated antinociceptive efficacy and sparing of morphine tolerance in a mouse model of neuropathic pain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.16.492135v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Painful peripheral neuropathy is the most common neurological complication associated with human immune deficiency virus (HIV) infection. Currently available treatments fail to provide adequate symptom relief, indicating the need for novel treatment strategies. To address this gap in knowledge, we characterized the impact of cannabinoid CB2 agonists, which lack psychoactivity associated with central CB1 activation, on antiretroviral-induced neuropathic nociception and identified cell types expressing CB2 that mediate the antinociceptive efficacy of CB2 agonists. Two structurally distinct CB2 agonists (AM1710 and LY2828360) alleviated antiretroviral-induced neuropathic pain, benefits which were absent in CB2 knockout mice. Conditional deletion of CB2 from peripheral sensory neurons eliminated the antinociceptive efficacy of CB2 agonists. We also asked whether LY2828360 treatment could reverse established morphine tolerance in the ddC-induced neuropathy model and whether CB2 expression on peripheral sensory neurons is necessary for sparing of morphine tolerance by LY2828360. The present studies suggest that CB2 activation may alleviate HIV-associated antiretroviral neuropathy and identify a previously unreported mechanism through which CB2 activation produces antinociceptive efficacy. Our results also provide the first evidence that a CB2 agonist can reverse established morphine tolerance and demonstrate that CB2 localized to peripheral sensory neurons mediates the opioid tolerance sparing efficacy of CB2 agonists.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Carey, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajic, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makriyannis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romero, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hillard, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mackie, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hohmann, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.16.492135</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Peripheral sensory neuron CB2 cannabinoid receptors are necessary for both CB2-mediated antinociceptive efficacy and sparing of morphine tolerance in a mouse model of neuropathic pain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.21.492438v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuroanatomical and Functional Consequences of Oxytocin Treatment at Birth 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.21.492438v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Birth is a critical period for the developing brain, a time when surging hormone levels help prepare the fetal brain for the tremendous physiological changes it must accomplish upon entry into the  extrauterine world. A number of obstetrical conditions warrant manipulations of these hormones at the time of birth, but we know little of their possible consequences on the developing brain. One of the most notable birth signaling hormones is oxytocin, which is administered to roughly 50% of laboring women in the United States prior to / during delivery. Previously, we found evidence for behavioral, epigenetic, and neuroendocrine consequences in adult prairie vole offspring following maternal oxytocin treatment immediately prior to birth. Here, we examined the neurodevelopmental consequences in adult prairie vole offspring following maternal oxytocin treatment immediately. Control prairie voles and those exposed to 0.25 mg/kg oxytocin were scanned as adults using anatomical and functional MRI, with neuroanatomy and brain function analyzed as voxel-based morphometry and resting state functional connectivity, respectively. Overall, anatomical differences brought on by oxytocin treatment, while widespread, were generally small, while differences in functional connectivity, particularly among oxytocin-exposed males, were larger. Analyses of functional connectivity based in graph theory revealed that oxytocin-exposed males in particular showed markedly increased connectivity throughout the brain and across several parameters, including closeness and degree. These results are interpreted in the context of the organizational effects of oxytocin exposure in early life and these findings add to a growing literature on how the perinatal brain is sensitive to hormonal manipulations at birth.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kenkel, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ortiz, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yee, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perkeybile, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulkarni, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carter, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferris, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.21.492438</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuroanatomical and Functional Consequences of Oxytocin Treatment at Birth]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.27.493738v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Full-duplex acoustic interaction system for cognitive experiments with cetaceans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.27.493738v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cetaceans show high cognitive abilities and strong social bonds. Acoustics is their primary modality to communicate and sense the environment. Research on their echolocation and vocalizations with conspecifics and with humans typically uses visual and tactile systems adapted from research on primates or birds. Such research would benefit from a purely acoustic communication system in which signals flow in both directions simultaneously. We designed and implemented a full duplex system to acoustically interact with cetaceans in the wild, featuring digital echo-suppression. We pilot tested the system in Arctic Norway and achieved an echo suppression of 18 dB leaving room for technical improvements addressed in the discussion. Nevertheless, the system enabled vocal interaction with the underwater acoustic scene by allowing experimenters to listen while producing sounds. We describe our motivations, then present our pilot deployment and give examples of initial explorative attempts to vocally interact with wild orcas and humpback whales.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rychen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Semoroz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eckerle, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hahnloser, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kleinberger, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.27.493738</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Full-duplex acoustic interaction system for cognitive experiments with cetaceans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.27.493772v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Functional imaging and quantification of multi-neuronal olfactory responses in C. elegans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.27.493772v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many animals perceive odorant molecules by collecting information from ensembles of olfactory neurons. Each neuron employs receptors that are tuned to recognize certain odorant molecules by chemical binding affinity. Olfactory systems are able, in principle, to detect and discriminate diverse odorants by using combinatorial coding strategies. Multineuronal imaging with high-throughput stimulus delivery allows comprehensive measurement of ensemble-level sensory representations. We have used microfluidics and multineuronal imaging to study ensemble-level olfactory representations at the sensory periphery of the nematode C. elegans. The collective activity of nematode chemosensory neurons reveals high-dimensional representations of olfactory information across a broad space of odorant molecules. We reveal diverse tuning properties and dose-response curves across chemosensory neurons and across odorants. We describe the unique contribution of each sensory neuron to an ensemble-level code for volatile odorants. We also show how natural stimuli, a set of nematode pheromones, are encoded by the sensory periphery. The integrated activity of the C. elegans chemosensory neurons contains sufficient information to robustly encode the intensity and identity of diverse chemical stimuli.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casademunt, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hung, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cain, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valenzuela, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lesanpezeshki, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pehlevan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samuel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.27.493772</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Functional imaging and quantification of multi-neuronal olfactory responses in C. elegans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.30.493917v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Lamellar Thickness Measurements in Normal and Osteogenesis Imperfecta Human Bone, with development of a method of automated thickness averaging to simplify quantitation. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.30.493917v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PurposeLamellar bone that forms in moderate and severe osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is often composed of structurally irregular lamellae compared to those in normal bone. Polarization light microscopy (PLM) demonstrates lamellar bone well but has rarely been used for quantitative studies; information available on normal bone lamellae tends to be variable and studies specifically assessing OI bone lamellae have not been done. We report on PLM histomorphometry quantifying bright and dark lamellar thicknesses in normal and OI bone. Manual measurements of individual lamellar thicknesses have been made on histologic sections using the cellSens image analysis system; in an effort to augment the number of measurements we also developed a method of automated thickness averaging in quantifying regions of lamellae.

MethodsFemoral and tibial cortical bone fragments from 5 individuals 5 - 26 years old (without molecular bone disorders) and 8 individuals 5 - 16 years old with progressively deforming (Sillence III) OI were obtained. The fragments were decalcified, infiltrated in JB4 solution, embedded in JB4 plastic, sectioned at 5 thickness and stained with 1% toluidine blue for light and polarizing microscopy. Manual measurements: Strict criteria for measurement, primarily to eliminate oblique lamellae, included accumulations of 16-20 bright and dark lamellae under PLM with a relatively narrow range of thicknesses, flattened elliptical osteocytes along the longitudinal axis of the lamellae and canaliculi passing from the walls of the osteocyte lacunae at right angles to the lamellae. Histomorphometric measurements of bright and dark lamellae by PLM were made at 20X magnification. Automated measurements: A script for automated measurement of average lamellar thicknesses from PLM images was developed in MATLAB (Mathworks, Natick, MA) to make measurement faster and less subjective. The script isolates a region from an image for measurement and marks each pixel as either bright or dark based on a local average intensity threshold. It then takes multiple pixel measurements along the length of the lamellae in the image and returns the average thickness of each in m.

Results1. OI bone mean lamellar thickness values are always less than those in normal bone. The mean value for all OI bright and dark lamellae combined is 1.80 {+/-} 0.72 m and the value in normal bone is 2.54 {+/-} 0.92 m. 2. Mean value for the bright lamellae is less than that for the dark lamellae in both normal and OI bone. The mean value for bright lamellae in OI is 1.47 {+/-} 0.53 m and for dark lamellae 2.18 {+/-} 0.72 m; in normal bone the mean value for bright lamellae is 2.06 {+/-} 0.54 m and for dark lamellae 3.07 {+/-} 0.96 m. The differences are statistically significant: between groups of normal and OI lamellae (p<0.001), normal and OI light bands (p<0.001), and normal and OI dark bands (p<0.001). 3. Ratio of mean values for bright/dark lamellar thicknesses is the same in OI and normal bone. The ratio in OI bone is 0.67 (range: 0.54 - 0.83) and in normal bone 0.67 (range: 0.60 - 0.88). 4. Validation of automated vs. manual datasets: For each lamella in the validation dataset, the percent difference between the automated and manual measurements was calculated. The mean of the absolute values of these percent differences was 18.9%, a statistically non-significant difference (p = 0.0518).

Discussion and conclusionsLamellar bone that forms in moderate and severe OI is composed of thinner and less regular lamellae than those in normal bone. i) PLM histomorphometry shows mean lamellar thicknesses (bright and dark merged) are statistically significantly decreased in OI compared to normal bone as are bright and dark lamellar thicknesses measured independently. ii) The automated method can be adapted readily to the assessment process for lamellar thicknesses and is, most likely, more accurate since it averages a greatly increased number of measurements per individual lamella. iii) Lamellar thickness measurements can be helpful in assessing the effect of specific collagen mutations on OI bone synthesis and warrant inclusion in both research and clinical histomorphometric assessments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chow, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ryan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shefelbine, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shapiro, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.30.493917</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lamellar Thickness Measurements in Normal and Osteogenesis Imperfecta Human Bone, with development of a method of automated thickness averaging to simplify quantitation.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.31.494203v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Within-species control reveals novel immune response genes in Caenorhabditis elegans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.31.494203v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a simple model host for studying the interaction between bacterial pathogens and the metazoan innate immune system. In the last two decades, much focus has been given to studying intestinal infection in the worm by the clinical strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14. Powerful genetic and molecular tools in both species facilitate the identification and analysis of bacterial virulence factors as well as host defense factors.

However, findings from these studies are confounded by the use of the genetically, metabolically, and physiologically divergent E. coli OP50 as a food source and as the non-virulent control. Here we report the use of P. aeruginosa z11 strain as a preferable control for PA14 infection studies. We demonstrate that many aspects of worm behavior, health-span, longevity, food attraction, brood size, lifespan, and pathogen avoidance and survival are not affected in z11. We show that the use of z11 as a control for transcriptomics analysis can increase the discovery power. In particular, we identified three novel pathogenesis-related genes in C. elegans. Our findings accentuate the importance of choosing an appropriate control environment for host-pathogen studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ranawade, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hartman, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.31.494203</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Within-species control reveals novel immune response genes in Caenorhabditis elegans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.494269v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Effects of Reduced Achilles Subtendons Relative Displacement on Healthy Elderly Walking: A Simulation Study 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.494269v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Walking in healthy elderly people is characterized by lower performance. Since conventional training programs have had limited success in improving gait performance, it is essential to identify underlying causes of walking deficits in healthy elderly adults. Recent studies have qualitatively shown that the decreased relative displacement of Achilles subtendons is likely the primary contributor to lower propulsion in the elderlys walking by creating a higher dependency on their triceps-surae muscle functions. Due to the invasive nature of experimental investigations, in this study, we developed a computational model and analyzed the effects of reduced Achilles subtendons relative displacement on the total metabolic rate and muscles force profiles during normal walking. Our musculoskeletal simulations revealed a 17% increase in the total metabolic rate in elderly adults whose Achilles subtendons were restricted to have no relative displacement. Changing the restriction level resulted in significant changes in the force distribution of the plantar flexor muscles, notably, a 40% reduction in the Medial Gastrocnemius and a 124% increase in the Soleus forces during the propulsion phase of walking. Also, we quantitatively presented the higher dependency of triceps-surae muscle functions regarding the limitation on their corresponding Achilles subtendons relative displacement. The results of this study confirm the experimental observations and can be used as initial insight into devising novel rehabilitation training programs with the focus on improving Achilles subtendons relative displacement.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khosrotabar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aftabi, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karimpour, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmadabadi, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.01.494269</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Effects of Reduced Achilles Subtendons Relative Displacement on Healthy Elderly Walking: A Simulation Study]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.02.494505v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Galaxy Training: A Powerful Framework for Teaching! 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.02.494505v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
There is an ongoing explosion of scientific datasets being generated, brought on by recent technological advances in many areas of the natural sciences. As a result, the life sciences have become increasingly computational in nature, and bioinformatics has taken on a central role in research studies. However, basic computational skills, data analysis and stewardship are still rarely taught in life science educational programs [1], resulting in a skills gap in many of the researchers tasked with analysing these big datasets. In order to address this skills gap and empower researchers to perform their own data analyses, the Galaxy Training Network (GTN) has previously developed the Galaxy Training Platform (https://training.galaxyproject.org); an open access, community-driven framework for the collection of FAIR training materials for data analysis utilizing the user-friendly Galaxy framework as its primary data analysis platform [2].

Since its inception, this training platform has thrived, with the number of tutorials and contributors growing rapidly, and the range of topics extending beyond life sciences to include topics such as climatology, cheminformatics and machine learning. While initially aimed at supporting researchers directly, the GTN framework has proven to be an invaluable resource for educators as well. We have focused our efforts in recent years on adding increased support for this growing community of instructors. New features have been added to facilitate the use of the materials in a classroom setting, simplifying the contribution flow for new materials, and have added a set of train-the-trainer lessons. Here, we present the latest developments in the GTN project, aimed at facilitating the use of the Galaxy Training materials by educators, and its usage in different learning environments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hiltemann, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rasche, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gladman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hotz, H.-R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lariviere, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blankenberg, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jagtap, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wollmann, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bretaudeau, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goue, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffin, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Royaux, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Le Bras, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehta, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Syme, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coppens, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Droesbeke, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soranzo, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bacon, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Psomopoulos, F. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gallardo-Alba, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Föll, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fahrner, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doyle, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Serrano-Solano, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fouilloux, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Heusden, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maier, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clements, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heyl, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grüning, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Batut, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Galaxy Training Network,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.02.494505</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Galaxy Training: A Powerful Framework for Teaching!]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.07.495167v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Minimal frustration underlies the usefulness of incomplete and inexact regulatory network models in biology 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.07.495167v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Regulatory networks as large and complex as those implicated in cell-fate choice are expected to exhibit intricate, very high-dimensional dynamics. Cell-fate choice, however, is a macroscopically simple process. Additionally, regulatory network models are almost always incomplete and / or inexact, and do not incorporate all the regulators and interactions that may be involved in cellfate regulation. In spite of these issues, regulatory network models have proven to be incredibly effective tools for understanding cell-fate choice across contexts and for making useful predictions. Here, we show that minimal frustration--a feature of biological networks across contexts but not of random networks--can compel simple, low-dimensional steady-state behavior even in large and complex networks. Moreover, the steady-state behavior of minimally frustrated networks can be recapitulated by simpler networks such as those lacking many of the nodes and edges, and those that treat multiple regulators as one. The present study provides a theoretical explanation for the success of network models in biology and for the challenges in network inference.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tripathi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kessler, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.07.495167</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Minimal frustration underlies the usefulness of incomplete and inexact regulatory network models in biology]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.08.494096v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genomics of cold adaptations in the Antarctic notothenioid fish radiation. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.08.494096v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Numerous novel adaptations characterise the radiation of notothenioids, the dominant fish group in the freezing seas of the Southern Ocean. To improve understanding of the evolution of this iconic fish group, we generated and analysed new genome assemblies for 24 species covering all major subgroups of the radiation. We present a new estimate for the onset of the radiation at 10.7 million years ago, based on a time-calibrated phylogeny derived from genome-wide sequence data. We identify a two-fold variation in genome size, driven by expansion of multiple transposable element families, and use long-read sequencing data to reconstruct two evolutionarily important, highly repetitive gene family loci. First, we present the most complete reconstruction to date of the antifreeze glycoprotein gene family, whose emergence enabled survival in sub-zero temperatures, showing the expansion of the antifreeze gene locus from the ancestral to the derived state. Second, we trace the loss of haemoglobin genes in icefishes, the only vertebrates lacking functional haemoglobins, through complete reconstruction of the two haemoglobin gene clusters across notothenioid families. Finally, we show that both the haemoglobin and antifreeze genomic loci are characterised by multiple transposon expansions that may have driven the evolutionary history of these genes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bista, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wood, J. M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desvignes, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCarthy, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matschiner, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ning, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tracey, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torrance, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sims, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chow, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oliver, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haggerty, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salzburger, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Postlethwait, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howe, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Detrich, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, C.- H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miska, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durbin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.08.494096</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genomics of cold adaptations in the Antarctic notothenioid fish radiation.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.11.495745v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Low diversity and microdiversity of comammox bacteria in wastewater systems suggests wastewater-specific adaptation within the Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa cluster. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.11.495745v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Studies have found Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa-like bacteria to be the principal or sole comammox bacteria in nitrogen removal systems for wastewater treatment. In contrast, multiple populations of strict ammonia and nitrite oxidizers co-exist in similar systems. This apparent lack of diversity is surprising and could impact the feasibility of leveraging comammox bacteria for nitrogen removal. We used full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing and genome-resolved metagenomics to compare population-level (i.e., species) diversity of comammox bacteria with that of strict nitrifiers in full-scale wastewater treatment systems and assess whether these observations were consistent or diverged at the strain-level. Full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing indicated that while Nitrosomonas-like bacteria exhibited higher population-level diversity, the effective microdiversity of most Nitrospira-like bacteria were comparatively higher except for one Nitrospira Lineage II population. Comammox bacterial metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) were associated with Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa. The average amino acid identity between comammox bacterial MAGs (93% {+/-} 3) across systems was significantly higher than that of the Nitrosomonas-like ammonia oxidizers (73%{+/-}8) and the Nitrospira-like nitrite oxidizer MAGs (75%{+/-}13), suggesting that the same comammox population was detected in all systems. Comammox bacteria and some ammonia oxidizers MAGs were significantly less microdiverse than most ammonia and nitrite oxidizers. Interestingly, strain-resolved analysis also indicates that different nitrogen removal systems harbor different comammox bacterial strains within the Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa cluster. These results suggest that comammox bacteria associated with Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa have low species- and strain-level diversity in nitrogen removal systems and may thus harbor specific adaptations to the wastewater ecosystem.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cotto, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vilardi, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fogarty, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khunjar, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Clippeleir, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilmore, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bailey, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lücker, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.11.495745</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Low diversity and microdiversity of comammox bacteria in wastewater systems suggests wastewater-specific adaptation within the Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa cluster.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.15.496353v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Mechanistic Study on the Cellular Uptake, Intracellular Trafficking, and Antisense Gene Regulation of Bottlebrush Polymer-Conjugated Oligonucleotides 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.15.496353v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We have developed a non-cationic transfection vector in the form of a bottlebrush polymer-antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) conjugate. Termed pacDNA (polymer-assisted compaction of DNA), these agents show improved biopharmaceutical characteristics and antisense potency in vivo while suppressing non-antisense side effects. Nonetheless, there still lacks a mechanistic understanding regarding the cellular uptake, subcellular trafficking, and gene knockdown with pacDNA. Here, we show that the pacDNA enters human non-small cell lung cancer cells (NCI-H358) predominantly by scavenger receptor-mediated endocytosis and macropinocytosis, and trafficks via the endolysosomal pathway within the cell. The pacDNA significantly reduces a target gene expression (KRAS) in the protein level but not in the mRNA level, despite that the transfection of free ASOs causes ribonuclease H1 (RNase H)-dependent degradation of KRAS mRNA. In addition, the antisense activity of pacDNA is independent of ASO chemical modification, suggesting that the pacDNA functions as a steric blocker.

TOC

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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruimeng, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ren, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.15.496353</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Mechanistic Study on the Cellular Uptake, Intracellular Trafficking, and Antisense Gene Regulation of Bottlebrush Polymer-Conjugated Oligonucleotides]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.17.496615v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Generating New Musical Preferences from Hierarchical Mapping of Predictions to Reward 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.17.496615v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Much of what we know and love about music hinges on our ability to make successful predictions, which appears to be an intrinsically rewarding process. Yet the exact process by which learned predictions become pleasurable is unclear. Here, we created novel melodies in an alternative scale different from any established musical culture, to show how musical preference is generated de novo. Across nine studies (n=1185), participants learned to like more frequently-presented items that adhered to this rapidly-learned structure, suggesting that exposure and prediction errors both affected self-report liking ratings. Learning trajectories varied by music reward sensitivity, but were similar for USA and Chinese participants. Furthermore, fMRI activity in auditory areas reflected prediction errors whereas functional connectivity between auditory and medial prefrontal regions reflected both exposure and prediction errors. Collectively, results support predictive coding as a cognitive mechanism by which new musical sounds become rewarding.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kathios, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sachs, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.17.496615</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Generating New Musical Preferences from Hierarchical Mapping of Predictions to Reward]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.17.496624v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sparse-spectral microendoscopy for real-time visualization of tumor cell phenotype and microenvironment spatial heterogeneity in vivo 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.17.496624v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cancer heterogeneity and its transformation with time propels treatment resistance and confounds patient outcomes. The inability to monitor in vivo the low abundance, heterocellular phenotypes that resist treatment and ultimately lead to patient death limits the ability to design precision therapies. Here we overcome limitations in multiplexed fluorescence phenotyping to introduce real-time, cellular resolution visualization of tumor heterogeneity in vivo. This method was performed to simultaneously map for the first time 5 individual biomarkers of stemness, proliferation, metabolism, leukocytes and angiogenesis deep within the peritoneal cavities of micrometastatic cancer mouse models at 17 frames per second (fps). The newly developed imaging system revealed distinct cancer cell phenotype-immune cell spatial correlations and clearly visualized the dynamic spatial response of resistant cancer cell niches following treatment. Furthermore, wide-field datasets were generated to facilitate derivation of a mathematical framework for quantifying biomarker spatial variation and thereby overcoming the area restrictions of conventional tumor biopsy. These results pave the way for real-time identification of cancer cell phenotypes in a clinical setting, on which optimized treatment regimens can be based for personalized treatment and precision therapy e.g., tumor margin determination during surgical resection. Additionally, this modality can be used to obtain more fundamental insights into tumor heterogeneity and how treatments affect the molecular and cellular responses of patient-specific disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Spring, B. Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palanisami, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saad, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kercher, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lang, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harman, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sutin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hasan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.17.496624</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sparse-spectral microendoscopy for real-time visualization of tumor cell phenotype and microenvironment spatial heterogeneity in vivo]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.18.496602v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comparative analysis of genome-scale, base-resolution DNA methylation profiles across 580 animal species 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.18.496602v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Methylation of cytosines is the prototypic epigenetic modification of the DNA. It has been implicated in various regulatory mechanisms throughout the animal kingdom and particularly in vertebrates. We mapped DNA methylation in 580 animal species (535 vertebrates, 45 invertebrates), resulting in 2443 genome-scale, base-resolution DNA methylation profiles of primary tissue samples from various organs. Reference-genome independent analysis of this comprehensive dataset quantified the association of DNA methylation with the underlying genomic DNA sequence throughout vertebrate evolution. We observed a broadly conserved link with two major transitions - once in the first vertebrates and again with the emergence of reptiles. Cross-species comparisons focusing on individual organs supported a deeply conserved association of DNA methylation with tissue type, and cross-mapping analysis of DNA methylation at gene promoters revealed evolutionary changes for orthologous genes with conserved DNA methylation patterns. In summary, this study establishes a large resource of vertebrate and invertebrate DNA methylomes, it showcases the power of reference-free epigenome analysis in species for which no reference genomes are available, and it contributes an epigenetic perspective to the study of vertebrate evolution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Klughammer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romanovskaia, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nemc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Posautz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seid, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schuster, L. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keinath, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lugo Ramos, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kosack, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evankow, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prinz, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirchberger, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erguner, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Datlinger, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fortelny, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidl, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farlik, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skjaerven, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bergthaler, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liedvogel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thaller, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burger, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hermann, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Distel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Distel, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kubber-Heiss, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bock, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.18.496602</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comparative analysis of genome-scale, base-resolution DNA methylation profiles across 580 animal species]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.21.496998v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inflammatory mediators act at renal pericytes to elicit contraction of vasa recta and reduce pericyte density along this medullary vascular network 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.21.496998v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Regardless of initiating cause, renal injury promotes a potent pro-inflammatory environment in the outer medulla and a concomitant sustained decrease in medullary blood flow (MBF). This decline in MBF is believed to one of the critical events in the pathogenesis of acute kidney injury (AKI), yet the precise cellular mechanism underlying this are still to be fully elucidated. MBF is regulated by contractile pericyte cells that reside on the descending vasa recta (DVR) capillaries, which are the primary source of blood flow to the medulla. Using the rodent and murine live kidney slice models, we sought to investigate the acute effects of key medullary inflammatory mediators TNF-, IL-1{beta}, IL-33, IL-18, C3a and C5a on vasa recta pericytes. Live kidney slices taken from both mice and rats and exposed to TNF-, IL-18, IL-33, and C5a demonstrated a real-time pericyte-mediated constriction of DVR. When pro-inflammatory mediators were applied in the presence of the AT1-R blocker Losartan the inflammatory-mediated constriction that had previously been observed was significantly attenuated. When live kidney slices were exposed to inflammatory mediators for 4-hours, we noted a significantly reduction in the number of NG2+ positive pericytes along vasa recta capillaries in both rodent and murine kidney slices. Data collected in this study, demonstrate that inflammatory mediators can dysregulate pericytes to constrict DVR diameter and reduce the density of pericytes along vasa recta vessels, further diminishing the regulatory capacity of the capillary network. We postulate that preliminary findings here suggest pericytes play a role in AKI.

New & NoteworthyHow medullary blood flow (MBF) becomes disproportionately dysregulated following renal injury is poorly understood yet is associated with worse prognostic outcomes following AKI. This study shows in both rats and mice that inflammatory mediators associated with AKI have acute and sustained microvascular actions at pericytes eliciting dysregulation of descending vasa recta (DVR) diameter and their loss from the DVR. This work highlights a possible pathology behind the dysregulation and reduction of MBF observed following AKI.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lilley, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wildman, S. S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peppiatt-Wildman, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.21.496998</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inflammatory mediators act at renal pericytes to elicit contraction of vasa recta and reduce pericyte density along this medullary vascular network]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.22.497108v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ratchet, swivel, tilt and roll: A complete description of subunit rotation in the ribosome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.22.497108v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protein synthesis by the ribosome involves large-scale rearrangements of the "small" subunit (SSU; [~]1 MDa), which include inter- and intra-subunit rotational motions. With more than 1000 structures of ribosomes and ribosomal subunits now publicly available, it is becoming increasingly difficult to design precise experiments that are based on a comprehensive analysis of all known rotation states. To overcome this limitation, we present the Ribosome Angle Decomposition (RAD) method, where the orientation of each small subunit head and body is described in terms of three angular coordinates (rotation, tilt and tilt direction) and a single translation. To demonstrate the utility of the accompanying software (RADtool) we applied it to all published ribosome and mitoribosome structures. This identified and analyzed 1077 fully-assembled ribosome complexes, as well as 280 isolated small subunits from 48 organisms. The RAD approach quantitatively distinguishes between previously described qualitative rotational features, determines when rotation-only descriptions are insufficient, and shows that tilt-like rearrangements of the SSU head and body are pervasive in both prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosomes. Together, the presented database and technique provide a robust platform for systematically analyzing, visualizing, and comparing subunit orientations of ribosomes from all kingdoms of life. Accordingly, the RAD resource establishes a common foundation with which structural, simulation, single-molecule and biochemical efforts can precisely interrogate the dynamics of this prototypical molecular machine.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hassan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byju, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Freitas, F. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roc, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pender, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kimbrough, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mattingly, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oliveira, R. J. d.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dunham, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.22.497108</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ratchet, swivel, tilt and roll: A complete description of subunit rotation in the ribosome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.30.498214v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Long-Circulating Vector for Aptamers Based upon Polyphosphodiester-Backboned Molecular Brushes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.30.498214v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Aptamers face challenges for use outside the ideal conditions in which they are developed. These difficulties are most palpable in vivo due to nuclease activities, rapid clearance, and off-target binding. Herein, we demonstrate that a polyphosphodiester-backboned molecular brush can suppress enzymatic digestion, reduce non-specific cell uptake, enable long blood circulation, and rescue the bioactivity of a conjugated aptamer in vivo. The backbone along with the aptamer is assembled via solid-phase synthesis, followed by installation of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) side chains using a two-step process with near-quantitative efficiency. The synthesis allows for precise control over polymer size and architecture. Consisting entirely of building blocks that are generally recognized as safe for therapeutics, this novel molecular brush is expected to provide a highly translatable route for aptamer-based therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xue, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mojtabavi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vedadghavami, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heo, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.30.498214</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Long-Circulating Vector for Aptamers Based upon Polyphosphodiester-Backboned Molecular Brushes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.06.499046v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cortical Parvalbumin-positive Interneuron Development and Function are Altered in the APC Conditional Knockout Mouse Model of Infantile Spasm Syndrome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.06.499046v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Infantile Spasms syndrome (ISS) is a childhood epilepsy syndrome characterized by infantile or late onset spasms, abnormal neonatal EEG, and epilepsy. Few treatments exist for IS, clinical outcomes are poor, and the molecular and circuit-level etiologies of IS are not well understood. Multiple human ISS risk genes are linked to Wnt/{beta}-catenin signaling, a pathway which controls developmental transcriptional programs and promotes glutamatergic excitation via {beta}-catenins role as a synaptic scaffold. We previously showed that deleting adenomatous polyposis coli (APC), a component of the {beta}-catenin destruction complex, in excitatory neurons (APC cKO mice, APCfl/fl x CaMKIICre) in mice increased {beta}-catenin levels in developing glutamatergic neurons and led to infantile behavioral spasms, abnormal neonatal EEG, and adult epilepsy. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the development of inhibitory GABAergic interneurons (INs) is disrupted in APC cKOs. IN dysfunction is implicated in human ISS, is a feature of other rodent models of ISS and may contribute to the manifestation of spasms and seizures. We found that parvalbumin positive INs (PV+INs), an important source of cortical inhibition, were decreased in number, underwent disproportionate developmental apoptosis, and had altered dendrite morphology at P9, the peak time of behavioral spasms. PV+INs received excessive excitatory input and their intrinsic ability to fire action potentials was reduced at all timepoints examined (P9, P14, P60). Subsequently, synaptic inhibition of pyramidal neurons was uniquely altered in the somatosensory cortex of APC cKO mice at all ages, with both decreased inhibition at P14 and enhanced inhibition at P9 and P60. These results indicate that inhibitory circuit dysfunction occurs in APC cKOs and, along with known changes in excitation, may contribute to ISS-related phenotypes.

Significance StatementInfantile spasms syndrome (ISS) is a devastating epilepsy with limited treatment options and poor clinical outcomes. The molecular, cellular, and circuit disruptions that cause infantile spasms and seizures are largely unknown, but inhibitory GABAergic interneuron dysfunction has been implicated in rodent models of ISS and may contribute to human ISS. Here, we utilize a rodent model of ISS, the APC cKO mouse, in which {beta}-catenin signaling is increased in excitatory neurons. This results in altered parvalbumin-positive GABAergic interneuron development and inhibitory synaptic dysfunction throughout life, showing that pathology arising in excitatory neurons can initiate long-term interneuron dysfunction. Our findings further implicate GABAergic dysfunction in ISS, even when pathology is initiated in other neuronal types.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ryner, R. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Derera, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armbruster, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kansara, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sommer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pirone, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noubary, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacob, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dulla, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.06.499046</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cortical Parvalbumin-positive Interneuron Development and Function are Altered in the APC Conditional Knockout Mouse Model of Infantile Spasm Syndrome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.07.499188v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modbamtools: Analysis of single-molecule epigenetic data for long-range profiling, heterogeneity, and clustering 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.07.499188v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The advent of long-read sequencing methods provides new opportunities for profiling the epigenome - especially as the methylation signature comes for "free" when native DNA is sequenced on either Oxford Nanopore or Pacific Biosciences instruments. However, we lack tools to visualize and analyze data generated from these new sources. Recent efforts from the GA4GH consortium have standardized methods to encode modification location and probabilities in the BAM format. Leveraging this standard format, we developed a technology-agnostic tool, modbamtools to visualize, manipulate and compare base modification/methylation data in a fast and robust way. modbamtools can produce high quality, interactive, and publication-ready visualizations as well as provide modules for downstream analysis of base modifications. Modbamtools comprehensive manual and tutorial can be found at https://rrazaghi.github.io/modbamtools/.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Razaghi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hook, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ou, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schatz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hansen, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Timp, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.07.499188</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modbamtools: Analysis of single-molecule epigenetic data for long-range profiling, heterogeneity, and clustering]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.09.499321v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Draft Human Pangenome Reference 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.09.499321v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Human Pangenome Reference Consortium (HPRC) presents a first draft human pangenome reference. The pangenome contains 47 phased, diploid assemblies from a cohort of genetically diverse individuals. These assemblies cover more than 99% of the expected sequence and are more than 99% accurate at the structural and base-pair levels. Based on alignments of the assemblies, we generated a draft pangenome that captures known variants and haplotypes, reveals novel alleles at structurally complex loci, and adds 119 million base pairs of euchromatic polymorphic sequence and 1,529 gene duplications relative to the existing reference, GRCh38. Roughly 90 million of the additional base pairs derive from structural variation. Using our draft pangenome to analyze short-read data reduces errors when discovering small variants by 34% and boosts the detected structural variants per haplotype by 104% compared to GRCh38-based workflows, and by 34% compared to using previous diversity sets of genome assemblies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liao, W.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ebler, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doerr, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haukness, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hickey, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lucas, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monlong, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abel, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buonaiuto, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, X. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colonna, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eizenga, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fischer, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fulton, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garg, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Groza, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guarracino, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harvey, W. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heumos, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howe, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, T.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markello, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munson, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mwaniki, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Novak, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olsen, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pesout, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Porubsky, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prins, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sibbesen, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tomlinson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Villani, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vollger, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Human Pangenome Reference Consortium,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bourque, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chaisson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.09.499321</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Draft Human Pangenome Reference]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.11.499636v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Infiltration of Tumor Spheroids by Activated Immune Cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.11.499636v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent years have seen a tremendous growth of interest in understanding the role that the adaptive immune system could play in interdicting tumor progression. In this context, it has been shown that the density of adaptive immune cells inside a solid tumor serves as a favorable prognostic marker across different types of cancer. The exact mechanisms underlying the degree of immune cell infiltration is largely unknown. Here, we quantify the temporal dynamics of the density profile of activated immune cells around a solid tumor spheroid. We propose a computational model incorporating immune cells with active, persistent movement and a proliferation rate that depends on the presence of cancer cells, and show that the model able to reproduce quantitatively the experimentally measured infiltration profile. Studying the density distribution of immune cells inside a solid tumor can help us better understand immune trafficking in the tumor micro-environment, hopefully leading towards novel immunotherapeutic strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mukherjee, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chepizhko, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lionetti, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zapperi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>La Porta, C. A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.11.499636</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Infiltration of Tumor Spheroids by Activated Immune Cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.18.500243v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The fidelity of genetic information transfer with aging segregates according to biological processes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.18.500243v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Maintenance of organismal function requires tightly regulated biomolecular communication. However, with aging, communication deteriorates, thereby disrupting effective information flow. Using information theory applied to skeletal muscle single cell RNA-seq data from young, middle-aged, and aged animals, we quantified the loss of communication efficiency over time. We considered communication channels between transcription factors (TF;  input message) and corresponding target genes (TG;  output message). Mutual information (MI), defined as the information effectively transmitted between TFs and TGs, declined with age. This decline was attributed to escalating biological noise and loss of precision with which TFs regulate TGs (i.e., channel capacity). When we ranked TF:TG pairs by MI, pairs associated with fatty acid oxidation displayed the greatest loss of communication with aging, while the system preserved communication between pairs related to RNA synthesis. These data suggest ineffective communication with aging against a backdrop of resource reallocation to support essential cellular functions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sivakumar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LeFebre, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menichetti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mugler, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ambrosio, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.18.500243</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The fidelity of genetic information transfer with aging segregates according to biological processes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.18.500485v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Versatile Multiple Object Tracking in Sparse 2D/3D Videos Via Diffeomorphic Image Registration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.18.500485v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tracking body parts in behaving animals, extracting fluorescence signals from cells embedded in deforming tissue, and analyzing cell migration patterns during development all require tracking objects with partially correlated motion. As dataset sizes increase, manual tracking of objects becomes prohibitively inefficient and slow, necessitating automated and semi-automated computational tools. Unfortunately, existing methods for multiple object tracking (MOT) are either developed for specific datasets and hence do not generalize well to other datasets, or require large amounts of training data that are not readily available. This is further exacerbated when tracking fluorescent sources in moving and deforming tissues, where the lack of unique features and sparsely populated images create a challenging environment, especially for modern deep learning techniques. By leveraging technology recently developed for spatial transformer networks, we propose ZephIR, an image registration framework for semi-supervised MOT in 2D and 3D videos. ZephIR can generalize to a wide range of biological systems by incorporating adjustable parameters that encode spatial (sparsity, texture, rigidity) and temporal priors of a given data class. We demonstrate the accuracy and versatility of our approach in a variety of applications, including tracking the body parts of a behaving mouse and neurons in the brain of a freely moving C. elegans. We provide an open-source package along with a web-based graphical user interface that allows users to provide small numbers of annotations to interactively improve tracking results.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nejatbakhsh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torkashvand, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gangadharan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seyedolmohadesin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paninski, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.18.500485</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Versatile Multiple Object Tracking in Sparse 2D/3D Videos Via Diffeomorphic Image Registration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.19.500691v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Quantitative Evaluation of Topological Motifs and Their Coupling in Gene Circuit State Distributions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.19.500691v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
One of the major challenges in biology is to understand how gene interactions collaborate to determine overall functions of biological systems. Here, we present a new computational framework that enables systematic, high-throughput, and quantitative evaluation of how small transcriptional regulatory circuit motifs, and their coupling, contribute to functions of a dynamical biological system. We illustrate how this approach can be applied to identify four- node gene circuits, circuit motifs, and motif coupling responsible for various gene expression state distributions, including those derived from single-cell RNA sequencing data. We also identify seven major classes of four-node circuits from clustering analysis of state distributions. The method is applied to establish phenomenological models of gene circuits driving human neuron differentiation, revealing important biologically relevant regulatory interactions. Our study will shed light on a better understanding of gene regulatory mechanisms in creating and maintaining cellular states.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Clauss, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.19.500691</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Quantitative Evaluation of Topological Motifs and Their Coupling in Gene Circuit State Distributions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.21.501037v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mapping the unicellular transcriptome of the ascending thoracic aorta to changes in mechanosensing and mechanoadaptation during aging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.21.501037v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Aortic stiffening is an inevitable manifestation of chronological aging, yet the mechano-molecular programs that orchestrate region- and layer-specific adaptations along the length and through the wall of the aorta are incompletely defined. Here, we show that the decline in passive cyclic distensibility is more pronounced in the ascending thoracic (ATA) compared to distal segments of the aorta and that tissues in both the medial and adventitial compartments of the ATA stiffen during aging. Single-cell RNA sequencing of aged ATA tissues reveals altered cellular senescence, remodeling, and inflammatory responses accompanied by enrichment of T-lymphocytes and rarefaction of vascular smooth muscle cells, compared to young samples. T-lymphocytes accumulate in the adventitia and likely promote fibrosis, while activation of mechanosensitive piezo-1 enhances medial vasoconstriction. These results portray the immuno-mechanical aging of the ATA as a process that culminates in a stiffer conduit permissive to the accrual of multi-gerogenic signals priming to disease development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Farra, Y. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rivera, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silvestro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pratama, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumari, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vlahos, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramkhelawon, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bellini, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.21.501037</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mapping the unicellular transcriptome of the ascending thoracic aorta to changes in mechanosensing and mechanoadaptation during aging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.22.501062v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
M2M-InvNet: TMS Induced Electric Field Reconstruction from Muscle Responses Using a Convolutional Network and Variational Inference 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.22.501062v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is often applied to the motor cortex to stimulate a collection of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in groups of peripheral muscles. The causal interface between TMS and MEP is the selective activation of neurons in the motor cortex; moving around the TMS  spot over the motor cortex causes different MEP responses. A question of interest is whether a collection of MEP responses can be used to identify the stimulated locations on the cortex, which could potentially be used to then place the TMS coil to produce chosen sets of MEPs. In this work we leverage our previous report on a 3D convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture that predicted MEPs from the induced electric field, to tackle an inverse imaging task in which we start with the MEPs and estimate the stimulated regions on the motor cortex. We present and evaluate five different inverse imaging CNN architectures, both conventional and generative, in terms of several measures of reconstruction accuracy. We found that one architecture, which we propose as M2M-InvNet, consistently achieved the best performance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Akbar, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-07-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.07.22.501062</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[M2M-InvNet: TMS Induced Electric Field Reconstruction from Muscle Responses Using a Convolutional Network and Variational Inference]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-07-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.02.502488v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pattern formation and bistability in a synthetic intercellular genetic toggle 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.02.502488v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Differentiation within multicellular organisms is a complex process that helps to establish spatial patterning and tissue formation within the body. Often, the differentiation of cells is governed by morphogens and intercellular signaling molecules that guide the fate of each cell, frequently using toggle-like regulatory components. Synthetic biologists have long sought to recapitulate patterned differentiation with engineered cellular communities and various methods for differentiating bacteria have been invented. Here, we couple a synthetic co-repressive toggle switch with intercellular signaling pathways to create a "quorum-sensing toggle." We show that this circuit not only exhibits population-wide bistability in a well-mixed liquid environment, but also generates patterns of differentiation in colonies grown on agar containing an externally supplied morphogen. If coupled to other metabolic processes, circuits such as the one described here would allow for the engineering of spatially patterned, differentiated bacteria for use in biomaterials and bioelectronics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Magalhaes, B. d. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Josic, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.02.502488</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pattern formation and bistability in a synthetic intercellular genetic toggle]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.02.502500v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SUMOylation of NaV1.2 channels regulates the velocity of backpropagating action potentials in cortical pyramidal neurons 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.02.502500v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Voltage-gated sodium channels located in axon initial segments (AIS) trigger action potentials (AP) and play pivotal roles in the excitability of cortical pyramidal neurons. The differential electrophysiological properties and distributions of NaV1.2 and NaV1.6 channels lead to distinct contributions to AP initiation and backpropagation. While NaV1.6 at the distal AIS promotes AP initiation and forward propagation, NaV1.2 at the proximal AIS promotes backpropagation of APs to the soma. Here, we show the Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier (SUMO) pathway modulates persistent sodium current (INaP) generation at the AIS to increase neuronal gain and the speed of backpropagation. Since SUMO does not affect NaV1.6, these effects were attributed to SUMOylation of NaV1.2. Moreover, SUMO effects were absent in a mouse engineered to express NaV1.2-Lys38Gln channels that lack the site for SUMO linkage. Thus, SUMOylation of NaV1.2 exclusively controls INaP generation and AP backpropagation, thereby playing a prominent role in synaptic integration and plasticity.

Significance StatementResolving a long-standing controversy, SUMOylation of NaV1.2 channels is revealed to regulate the excitability of cortical neurons by augmenting persistent sodium current at critical subthreshold voltages. SUMOylation increases the speed of action potential backpropagation from the axon initial segment to the soma, a phenomenon critical to long-term potentiation, spike-time dependent plasticity, and release of retrograde factors essential to synaptic plasticity and development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kotler, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapunsky, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shvartsman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plant, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstein, S. A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleidervish, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.02.502500</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SUMOylation of NaV1.2 channels regulates the velocity of backpropagating action potentials in cortical pyramidal neurons]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.03.502621v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Does the paradigm of genotype-environment associations need to be re-assessed? The paradox of adaptive phenotypic clines with non-clinal patterns in causal alleles 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.03.502621v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multivariate climate change presents an urgent need to understand how species adapt to complex environments. Population genetic theory predicts that loci under selection will form monotonic allele frequency clines with their selective environment, which has led to the wide use of genotype-environment associations (GEAs). This study elucidates the conditions under which allele frequency clines are more or less likely to evolve as multiple quantitative traits adapt to a multivariate environment. A novel set of simulations was created that all evolved similar phenotypic clines, but with varying proportions of causal alleles with clines. Phenotypic clines evolved mostly without clines in the causal allele frequencies under conditions that promoted unique combinations of mutations to achieve the multivariate optimum in different parts of the landscape. Although univariate and multivariate GEA methods failed to accurately infer the genetic basis of adaptation under a range of scenarios, individual multivariate traits could be accurately predicted from genotype and environmental data without any knowledge of the genetic architecture. This research challenges the utility of GEAs for understanding the genetic basis of adaptation to the environment, and instead suggests that multivariate trait predictions are a more fruitful approach for genomic forecasting and assisted gene flow efforts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.03.502621</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Does the paradigm of genotype-environment associations need to be re-assessed? The paradox of adaptive phenotypic clines with non-clinal patterns in causal alleles]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.03.502723v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Optimal Cancer Evasion in a Dynamic Immune Microenvironment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.03.502723v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The failure of cancer treatments, including immunotherapy, continues to be a major obstacle in preventing durable remission. This failure often results from tumor evolution, both genotypic and phenotypic, away from sensitive cell states. Here, we propose a mathematical framework for studying the dynamics of adaptive immune evasion that tracks the number of tumor-associated antigens available for immune targeting. We solve for the unique optimal cancer evasion strategy using stochastic dynamic programming and demonstrate that this policy results in increased cancer evasion rates when compared to a passive, fixed strategy. Our foundational model relates the likelihood and temporal dynamics of cancer evasion to features of the immune microenvironment, where tumor immunogenicity reflects a balance between cancer adaptation and host recognition. In contrast with a passive strategy, optimally adaptive evaders navigating varying selective environments result in substantially heterogeneous post-escape tumor antigenicity, giving rise to immunogenically hot and cold tumors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>George, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.03.502723</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Optimal Cancer Evasion in a Dynamic Immune Microenvironment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.06.502185v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modulation of cannabinoid receptor signaling by endocannabinoids 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.06.502185v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Endocannabinoids (eCBs) are endogenous lipid molecules that activate the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1), a G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) that signals primarily through the Gi/o family of G proteins to regulate neurotransmitter release. Consequently, CB1 is an important therapeutic target for several neurological disorders. How eCBs interact with CB1 is not known and the downstream signaling they activate is not well understood. In this study we show that eCBs do not activate Gi1 as much as synthetic cannabinoids. To characterize activation of CB1 by eCB, we formed an eCB analogue-bound (AMG315) CB1-Gi signaling complex for structural studies. The structure reveals differences in the orthosteric ligand binding pocket not seen in the previous CB1 structures, providing insights into the structural determinants of ligand efficacy. In combination with signaling and simulation data, this study provides mechanistic insights into CB1 activation by different classes of ligands, and sheds light on the G protein preferences between endogenous and exogenous ligands.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Krishna Kumar, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robertson, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thadhani, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suomivuori, C.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Powers, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ji, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nikas, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerasi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vemuri, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dror, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Inoue, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makriyannis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skiniotis, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kobilka, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.06.502185</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modulation of cannabinoid receptor signaling by endocannabinoids]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.06.503000v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Universal Language for Finding Mass Spectrometry Data Patterns 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.06.503000v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Even though raw mass spectrometry data is information rich, the vast majority of the data is underutilized. The ability to interrogate these rich datasets is handicapped by the limited capability and flexibility of existing software. We introduce the Mass Spec Query Language (MassQL) that addresses these issues by enabling an expressive set of mass spectrometry patterns to be queried directly from raw data. MassQL is an open-source mass spectrometry query language for flexible and mass spectrometer manufacturer-independent mining of MS data. We envision the flexibility, scalability, and ease of use of MassQL will empower the mass spectrometry community to take fuller advantage of their mass spectrometry data and accelerate discoveries.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jarmusch, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aron, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petras, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phelan, V. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bittremieux, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Acharya, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmed, M. M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bauermeister, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bertin, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boudreau, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Borges, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowen, B. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chagas, F. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clevenger, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Correia, M. S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crandall, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crusemann, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Damiani, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fiehn, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garg, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerwick, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilbert, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Globisch, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomes, P. W. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heuckeroth, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>James, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarmusch, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kakhkhorov, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, K. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kersten, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirk, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kohlbacher, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kontou, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lizama-Chamu, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luu, G. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luzzatto Knaan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marty, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.06.503000</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Universal Language for Finding Mass Spectrometry Data Patterns]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.07.503088v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High-Voltage Biomolecular Sensing Using a Bacteriophage Portal Protein Covalently Immobilized Within a Solid-State Nanopore 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.07.503088v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The application of nanopores as label-free, single-molecule biosensors for electrical or optical probing of structural features in biomolecules has been widely explored. While biological nanopores (membrane proteins and bacteriophage portal proteins) and solid-state nanopores (thin films and two-dimensional materials) have been extensively employed, the third class of nanopores known as hybrid nanopores, where an artificial membrane substitutes the organic support membrane of proteins, has been only sparsely studied, due to challenges in implementation. G20c portal protein contains a natural DNA pore that is used by viruses for filling their capsid with viral genomic DNA. We have previously developed a lipid-free hybrid nanopore by "corking" the G20c portal protein into a SiNx nanopore. Herein, we demonstrate that through chemical functionalization of the synthetic nanopore, covalent linkage between the solid-state pore and the G20c portal protein considerably improves the hybrid pore stability, lifetime, and voltage resilience. Moreover, we demonstrate electric-field-driven and motor protein-mediated transport of DNA molecules through this hybrid pore. Our integrated protein/solid-state hybrid nanopore can serve as a robust and durable framework for sensing and sequencing at high voltages, potentially providing higher resolution, higher signal-to-noise ratio, and higher throughput compared to the more conventional membrane-embedded protein platforms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mojtabavi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greive, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antson, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.07.503088</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High-Voltage Biomolecular Sensing Using a Bacteriophage Portal Protein Covalently Immobilized Within a Solid-State Nanopore]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.10.503498v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Data-Driven Optimization Method for Coarse-Graining Gene Regulatory Networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.10.503498v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
One major challenge in systems biology is to understand how various genes in a gene regulatory network (GRN) collectively perform their functions and control network dynamics. This task becomes extremely hard to tackle in the case of large networks with hundreds of genes and edges, many of which have redundant regulatory roles and functions. The existing methods for model reduction usually require the detailed mathematical description of dynamical systems and their corresponding kinetic parameters, which are often not available. Here, we present a data-driven method for coarse-graining large GRNs, named SacoGraci, using ensemble-based mathematical modeling, dimensionality reduction and gene circuit optimization by Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods. SacoGraci requires network topology as the only input and is robust against errors in GRNs. We benchmark and demonstrate its usage with synthetic, literature-based, and bioinformatics-derived GRNs. We hope SacoGraci will enhance our ability to model the gene regulation of complex biological systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Caranica, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.10.503498</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Data-Driven Optimization Method for Coarse-Graining Gene Regulatory Networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.16.504202v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Chromosome-level genome of the three-spot damselfish, Dascyllus trimaculatus 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.16.504202v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Damselfishes (Family: Pomacentridae) are a group of ecologically important, primarily coral reef fishes that include over 400 species. Damselfishes have been used as model organisms to study recruitment (anemonefishes), the effects of ocean acidification (spiny damselfish), population structure and speciation (Dascyllus). The genus Dascyllus includes a group of small bodied species, and a complex of relatively larger bodied species, the Dascyllus trimaculatus species complex that comprises several species including D. trimaculatus itself. The three-spot damselfish, D. trimaculatus is a widespread and common coral reef fish species found across the tropical Indo-Pacific. Here we present the first genome assembly of this species. This assembly contains 910 Mb, 90% of the bases are in 24 chromosome-scale scaffolds, and the BUSCO score of the assembly is 97.9%. Our findings confirm previous reports of a karyotype of 2n = 47 in D. trimaculatus in which one parent contributes 24 chromosomes and the other 23. We find evidence that this karyotype is the result of a heterozygous Robertsonian fusion. We also find that the D. trimaculatus chromosomes are each homologous with single chromosomes of the closely related clownfish species, Amphiprion percula. This assembly will be a valuable resource in the population genomics and conservation of Damselfishes, and continued studies of the karyotypic diversity in this clade.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Roberts, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schultz, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gatins, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Escalona, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bernardi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.16.504202</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Chromosome-level genome of the three-spot damselfish, Dascyllus trimaculatus]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.22.504796v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeting default mode network connectivity with mindfulness-based fMRI neurofeedback: A pilot study among adolescents with affective disorder history 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.22.504796v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adolescents experience alarmingly high rates of major depressive disorder (MDD), however, gold-standard treatments are only effective for ~50% of youth. Accordingly, there is a critical need to develop novel interventions, particularly ones that target neural mechanisms believed to potentiate depressive symptoms. Directly addressing this gap, we developed a mindfulness-based fMRI neurofeedback (mbNF) for adolescents that targets default mode network (DMN) hyperconnectivity, which has been implicated in the onset and maintenance of MDD. In this proof-of-concept study, adolescents (n = 9) with a lifetime history of depression and/or anxiety were administered clinical interviews and self-report questionnaires, and then, each participants DMN and central executive network (CEN) were personalized using a resting state fMRI localizer. After the localizer scan, adolescents completed a brief mindfulness training followed by a mbNF session in the scanner wherein they were instructed to volitionally reduce DMN relative to CEN activation by practicing mindfulness meditation. Several promising findings emerged. First, mbNF successfully engaged the target brain state during neurofeedback; participants spent more time in the target state with DMN activation lower than CEN activation. Second, in each of the nine adolescents, mbNF led to significantly reduced within-DMN connectivity, which correlated with post-mbNF increases in state mindfulness. Last, a reduction of within-DMN connectivity mediated the association between better mbNF performance and increased state mindfulness. These findings demonstrate that personalized mbNF can effectively and non-invasively modulate the intrinsic networks known to be associated with the emergence and persistence of depressive symptoms during adolescence.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raya, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morfini, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Urban, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pagliaccio, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yendiki, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auerbach, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bauer, C. C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.22.504796</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeting default mode network connectivity with mindfulness-based fMRI neurofeedback: A pilot study among adolescents with affective disorder history]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.22.504819v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The butterfly effect: mutational bias of SARS-CoV-2 affects its pattern of molecular evolution on synonymous and nonsynonymous levels 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.22.504819v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Evolution is a function of mutagenesis and selection. To analyse the role of mutagenesis on the structure of the SARS-CoV-2 genome, we reconstructed the mutational spectrum, which was highly C>U and G>U biased. This bias forces the SARS-CoV-2 genome to become increasingly U-rich unless selection cancels it. We analysed the consequences of this bias on the composition of the most neutral (four-fold degenerate synonymous substitutions) and the least neutral positions (nonsynonymous substitutions). The neutral nucleotide composition is already highly saturated by U and, according to our model, it is at equilibrium, suggesting that in the future, we dont expect any more increase in U. However, nonsynonymous changes continue slowly evolve towards equilibrium substituting CG-rich amino-acids ("losers") with U-rich ones ("gainers"). This process is universal for all genes of SARS-CoV-2 as well as for other coronaviridae species. In line with the direction mutation pressure hypothesis, we show that viral-specific amino acid content is associated with the viral-specific mutational spectrum due to the accumulation of effectively neutral slightly deleterious variants (losers to gainers) during the molecular evolution. The tuning of a protein space by the mutational process is expected to be typical for species with relaxed purifying selection, suggesting that the purging of slightly-deleterious variants in the SARS-CoV-2 population is not very effective, probably due to the fast expansion of the viral population during the pandemic. Understanding the mutational process can help to design more robust vaccines, based on gainer-rich motifs, close to the mutation-selection equilibrium.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Voronka, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Efimenko, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oreshkov, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleischmann, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yurov, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trufanova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Timonina, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ree, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Penfrat, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Junier, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agranovsky, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunbin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fellay, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.22.504819</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The butterfly effect: mutational bias of SARS-CoV-2 affects its pattern of molecular evolution on synonymous and nonsynonymous levels]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.23.504814v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Epigenetic memory acquired during long-term EMTinduction governs the recovery to the epithelial state 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.23.504814v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) and its reverse Mesenchymal-Epithelial Transition (MET) are critical during embryonic development, wound healing and cancer metastasis. While phenotypic changes during short-term EMT induction are reversible, long-term EMT induction has been often associated with irreversibility. Here, we show that phenotypic changes seen in MCF10A cells upon long-term EMT induction by TGF{beta} need not be irreversible, but have relatively longer timescales of reversibility than those seen in short-term induction. Next, using a phenomenological mathematical model incorporating the epigenetic silencing of miR-200 by ZEB, we highlight how the epigenetic memory gained during long-term EMT induction can slow the recovery to the epithelial state post-TGF{beta} withdrawal. Our results suggest that epigenetic modifiers can govern the extent and timescale of EMT reversibility, and advise caution against labelling phenotypic changes seen in long-term EMT induction as  irreversible.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jain, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corbo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohammad, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Toneff, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.23.504814</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Epigenetic memory acquired during long-term EMTinduction governs the recovery to the epithelial state]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.29.505626v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A second unveiling: haplotig masking of the eastern oyster genome improves population-level inference 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.29.505626v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genome assembly can be challenging for species that are characterized by high amounts of polymorphism, heterozygosity, and large effective population sizes. High levels of heterozygosity can result in genome mis-assemblies and a larger than expected genome size due to the haplotig versions of a single locus being assembled as separate loci. Here, we describe the first chromosome-level genome for the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica. Publicly released and annotated in 2017, the assembly has a scaffold N50 of 54 mb and is over 97.3% complete based on BUSCO analysis. The genome assembly for the eastern oyster is a critical resource for foundational research into molluscan adaptation to a changing environment and for selective breeding for the aquaculture industry. Subsequent resequencing data suggested the presence of haplotigs in the original assembly, and we developed a post hoc method to break up chimeric contigs and mask haplotigs in published heterozygous genomes and evaluated improvements to the accuracy of downstream analysis. Masking haplotigs had a large impact on SNP discovery and estimates of nucleotide diversity and had more subtle and nuanced effects on estimates of heterozygosity, population structure analysis, and outlier detection. We show that haplotig-masking can be a powerful tool for improving genomic inference, and we present an open, reproducible resource for the masking of haplotigs in any published genome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Puritz, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hare, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hillier, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Minx, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Modak, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Proestou, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rice, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tomlison, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Warren, W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Witkop, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomez-Chiarri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.29.505626</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A second unveiling: haplotig masking of the eastern oyster genome improves population-level inference]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.29.505629v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Nucleotide and structural polymorphisms of the eastern oyster genome paint a mosaic of divergence, selection, and human impacts 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.29.505629v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, is a valuable fishery and aquaculture species that provides critical services as an ecosystem engineer. Oysters have a life-history that promotes high genetic diversity and gene flow while also occupying a wide range of habitats in variable coastal environments from the southern Gulf of Mexico to the southern waters of Atlantic Canada. To understand the interplay of genetic diversity, gene flow, and intense environmental selection, we used whole genome re-sequencing data from 90 individuals across the eastern United States and Gulf of Mexico, plus 5 selectively bred lines. Our data confirmed a large phylogeographic break between oyster populations in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast of the USA. We also demonstrated that domestication has artificially admixed genetic material between the two ocean basins, and selected lines with admixed ancestry continue to maintain heterozygosity at these sites through several generations post admixture, possibly indicating relevance to desirable aquaculture traits. We found that genetic and structural variation are high in both wild and selected populations, but we also demonstrated that, when controlling for domestication admixture across ocean basins, wild populations do have significantly higher levels of nucleotide diversity and copy number variation than selected lines. Within the Atlantic coast, we detected subtle but distinct population structure, introgression of selected lines within wild individuals, an interaction between structural variation and putatively adaptive population structure, and evidence of candidate genes responding to selection from salinity. Our study highlights the potential for applying whole genome sequencing to highly polymorphic species and provides a road map for future work examining the genome variation of eastern oyster populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Puritz, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hare, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LaPeyre, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lundgren, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Modak, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Proestou, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rawson, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fernandez Robledo, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Witkop, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weedop, K. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomez-Chiarri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.29.505629</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Nucleotide and structural polymorphisms of the eastern oyster genome paint a mosaic of divergence, selection, and human impacts]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.03.506488v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural Reorganization and Relaxation Dynamics of Axially Stressed Chromosomes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.03.506488v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Micromechanical studies of mitotic chromosomes have revealed them to be remarkably extensible objects and informed early models of mitotic chromosome organization. We use a data-driven, coarsegrained polymer modeling approach, capable of generating ensembles of chromosome structures that are quantitatively consistent with experiments, to explore the relationship between the spatial organization of individual chromosomes and their emergent mechanical properties. In particular, we investigate the mechanical properties of our model chromosomes by axially stretching them. Simulated stretching led to a linear force-extension curve for small strain, with mitotic chromosomes behaving about ten-fold stiffer than interphase chromosomes. Studying the relaxation dynamics we found that chromosomes are viscoelastic solids, with a highly liquid-like, viscous behavior in interphase that becomes solid-like in mitosis. This emergent mechanical stiffness in our model originates from lengthwise compaction, an effective potential capturing the activity of loop-extruding SMC complexes. Chromosomes denature under large strains via unraveling, which is characterized by opening of large-scale folding patterns. By quantifying the effect of mechanical perturbations on the chromosomes structural features, our model provides a nuanced understanding of in vivo mechanics of chromosomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ruben, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brahmachari, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contessoto, V. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oliveira Junior, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.03.506488</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural Reorganization and Relaxation Dynamics of Axially Stressed Chromosomes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.06.506753v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bridging global actin network patterns to local molecular dynamics: a combined modeling and machine learning framework 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.06.506753v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cells rely on their cytoskeleton for key processes including division and directed motility. Actin filaments are a primary constituent of the cytoskeleton. Although actin filaments can create a variety of network architectures linked to distinct cell functions, the microscale molecular interactions that give rise to these macroscale structures are not well understood. In this work, we investigate the microscale mechanisms that produce different branched actin network structures using an iterative classification approach. First, we employ a simple yet comprehensive agent-based model that produces synthetic actin networks with precise control over the microscale dynamics. Then we apply machine learning techniques to classify actin networks based on measurable network density and geometry, identifying key mechanistic processes that lead to particular branched actin network architectures. Extensive computational experiments reveal that the most accurate method uses a combination of supervised learning based on network density and unsupervised learning based on network symmetry. This framework can potentially serve as a powerful tool to discover the molecular interactions that produce the wide variety of actin network configurations associated with normal development as well as pathological conditions such as cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rostami, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bannish, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gasior, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinals, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Copos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawes, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.06.506753</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bridging global actin network patterns to local molecular dynamics: a combined modeling and machine learning framework]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.06.506797v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Behavior shapes retinal motion statistics during natural locomotion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.06.506797v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWWalking through an environment generates retinal motion, which humans rely on to perform a variety of visual tasks. Retinal motion patterns are determined by an interconnected set of factors, including gaze location, gaze stabilization, the structure of the environment, and the walkers goals. The characteristics of these motion signals have important consequences for neural organization and behavior. However, to date, there are no empirical in situ measurements of how combined eye and body movements interact with real 3D environments to shape the statistics of retinal motion signals. Here, we collect measurements of the eyes, the body, and the 3D environment during locomotion. We describe properties of the resulting retinal motion patterns. We explain how these patterns are shaped by gaze location in the world, as well as by behavior, and how they may provide a template for the way motion sensitivity and receptive field properties vary across the visual field.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Muller, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matthis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonnen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cormack, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huk, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayhoe, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.06.506797</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Behavior shapes retinal motion statistics during natural locomotion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.07.506901v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Microglia protect fungi against copper starvation and promote brain infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.07.506901v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Microglia provide protection against a range of brain infections, but how these glial cells respond to fungi is poorly understood. We investigated the role of microglia in the context of cryptococcal meningitis, the most common cause of fungal brain infections in humans. Using a series of transgenic- and chemical-based microglia depletion methods we found that, contrary to their protective role during other infections, microglia supported cryptococcal fungal brain infection. We show that microglia become hosts for intracellular fungal growth and are a site in which the fungus accesses the restricted micronutrient copper. We developed a reporter fungal strain to track copper starvation responses by the fungus and found that yeast were protected from copper starvation within microglia. Lastly, we show that stimulation of microglia with IFN{gamma} causes restriction of phagosomal copper to intracellular fungi. These data provide a mechanistic explanation for why microglia depletion has a therapeutic effect in the context of this life-threatening fungal infection and is one of the few examples of microglia acting to promote infection. Our data demonstrate how tissue-resident phagocytes can support cryptococcal infections by acting as intracellular reservoirs and sites of microbial nutrient acquisition, and how these mechanisms may be blocked by IFN{gamma} immunotherapy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mohamed, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hain, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alselami, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vanhoffelen, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bojang, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lukande, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ballou, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>May, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vande Velde, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Drummond, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.07.506901</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Microglia protect fungi against copper starvation and promote brain infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.13.507801v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sounding the alarm: sex differences in rat ultrasonic vocalizations during Pavlovian fear conditioning and extinction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.13.507801v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pavlovian fear conditioning is a prevalent tool in the study of aversive learning, which is a key component of stress-related psychiatric disorders. Adult rats can exhibit various threat-related behaviors, including freezing, motor responses and ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs). While these responses can all signal aversion, we know little about how they relate to one another. Here we characterize USVs emitted by male and female rats during cued fear acquisition and extinction and assess the relationship between different threat-related behaviors. To probe the effects of aversive stimulus intensity, we exposed the rats to mild (0.3 mA), moderate (0.5 mA) or strong (1 mA) foot shocks. We found that males consistently emitted more alarm calls than females, and male alarm calls were more closely contingent on shock intensity than were female alarm calls. Furthermore, 25 % of males and 45 % of females did not emit alarm calls. Males that made alarm calls had significantly higher levels of freezing than males who did not, while no differences in freezing were observed between female alarm callers and non-callers. Alarm call emission was also affected by the predictability of the shock; when unpaired from a tone cue, both males and females started emitting alarm calls significantly later. Some rats continued to alarm-call during extinction learning (90% of males, 30% of females) and retrieval (65% of males, 20% of females). Collectively these data suggest sex-dependence in how behavioral readouts relate to innate and conditioned threat responses. Importantly, we suggest that the same behaviors can signal sex-dependent features of aversion.

Significance statementBehavioral neuroscientists can access various outputs during behavioral tests to draw conclusions about internal states of animals. While freezing is the most common index of rodents feeling threatened, these animals also emit specific ultrasonic vocalizations during aversive situations. Here we record several motor and vocal behaviors to assess how they relate to each other as threat responses, and how such relationships vary across sex. We found robust differences in how much male and female rats engaged in so-called alarm vocalizations. These vocalizations were subject to extinction in both sexes, but correlated with freezing only in males. As the field advances to include more females in preclinical research, it is crucial that we understand how similar-appearing outputs may reflect sex-biased features.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Laine, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rhyner, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kannan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keith, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pikus, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bergeron, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ravaglia, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ulgenturk, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shinde, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shansky, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.13.507801</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sounding the alarm: sex differences in rat ultrasonic vocalizations during Pavlovian fear conditioning and extinction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.17.508400v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Synthesis of Long RNA with a Site-Specific Modification by Enzymatic Splint Ligation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.17.508400v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Synthesis of RNA molecules that contain an internal site-specific modification is important for RNA research and therapeutics. While solid-state synthesis is attainable for such RNA in the range of 100 nucleotides (nts), it is currently impossible with kilobase (kb)-long RNA. Instead, long RNA with an internal modification is usually assembled in an enzymatic 3-part splint ligation to join a short RNA oligonucleotide, containing the site-specific modification, with both a left-arm and a right-arm long RNA that are synthesized by in vitro transcription. However, long RNAs have structural heterogeneity and those synthesized by in vitro transcription have 3-end sequence heterogeneity, which together substantially reduce the yield of 3-part splint ligation. Here we describe a method of 3-part splint ligation with an enhanced efficiency utilizing a ribozyme cleavage reaction to address the 3-end sequence heterogeneity and involving DNA disruptors proximal to the ligation sites to address the structural heterogeneity. The yields of the synthesized kb-long RNA are sufficiently high to afford purification to homogeneity for practical RNA research. We also verify the sequence accuracy at each ligation junction by nanopore sequencing.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gamper, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCormick, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tavakoli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, Y.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.17.508400</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Synthesis of Long RNA with a Site-Specific Modification by Enzymatic Splint Ligation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.19.508543v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Expression of thioredoxin-1 in the ASJ neuron corresponds with and enhances intrinsic regenerative capacity under lesion conditioning in C. elegans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.19.508543v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A conditioning lesion of the peripheral sensory axon triggers robust central axon regeneration in mammals. We trigger conditioned regeneration in the C. elegans ASJ neuron by laser surgery or genetic disruption of sensory pathways. Conditioning upregulates trx-1 expression, as indicated by trx-1 promoter-driven green fluorescent protein and fluorescence in situ hybridization, suggesting trx-1 levels and associated fluorescence indicate regenerative capacity. Redox activity of trx-1 functionally enhances conditioned regeneration, but both redox-dependent and -independent activity inhibit non-conditioned regeneration. Six strains isolated in a forward genetic screen for reduced fluorescence, which suggests diminished regenerative potential, also show reduced axon outgrowth. We demonstrate an association between trx-1 expression and the conditioned state that we leverage to rapidly assess regenerative capacity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Grooms, N. W. F. W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fitzgerald, M. Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schulting, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Urena, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.19.508543</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Expression of thioredoxin-1 in the ASJ neuron corresponds with and enhances intrinsic regenerative capacity under lesion conditioning in C. elegans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.23.509153v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Resolving chaperone-assisted protein folding on the ribosome at the peptide level 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.23.509153v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The cellular environment is critical for efficient protein maturation, but how proteins fold during biogenesis remains poorly understood. We used hydrogen/deuterium exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry (MS) to define, at peptide resolution, the cotranslational chaperone-assisted folding pathway of Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase. On the ribosome, the nascent polypeptide folds via structured intermediates not populated during refolding from denaturant. Association with the ribosome allows these intermediates to form, as otherwise destabilizing C-terminal sequences remain confined in the ribosome exit tunnel. We find that partially-folded nascent chains recruit the chaperone Trigger factor, which uses a large composite hydrophobic/hydrophilic interface to engage folding intermediates without disrupting their structure. In addition, we comprehensively mapped dynamic interactions between the nascent chain and ribosomal proteins, tracing the path of the emerging polypeptide during synthesis. Our work provides a high-resolution description of de novo protein folding dynamics, thereby revealing new mechanisms by which cellular factors shape the conformational search for the native state.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pajak, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roeselova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shivakumaraswamy, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howell, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hartl, F.-U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balchin, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.23.509153</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Resolving chaperone-assisted protein folding on the ribosome at the peptide level]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.24.509068v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MSstatsPTM: Statistical relative quantification of post-translational modifications in bottom-up mass spectrometry-based proteomics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.24.509068v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Liquid chromatography coupled with bottom up mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based proteomics is increasingly used to detect changes in post-translational modifications (PTMs) in samples from different conditions. Analysis of data from such experiments faces numerous statistical challenges. These include the low abundance of modified proteoforms, the small number of observed peptides that span modification sites, and confounding between changes in the abundance of PTM and the overall changes in the protein abundance. Therefore, statistical approaches for detecting differential PTM abundance must integrate all the available information pertaining to a PTM site, and consider all the relevant sources of confounding and variation. In this manuscript we propose such a statistical framework, which is versatile, accurate, and leads to reproducible results. The framework requires an experimental design, which quantifies, for each sample, both peptides with post-translational modifications and peptides from the same proteins with no modification sites. The proposed framework supports both label-free and tandem mass tag (TMT)-based LC-MS/MS acquisitions. The statistical methodology separately summarizes the abundances of peptides with and without the modification sites, by fitting separate linear mixed effects models appropriate for the experimental design. Next, model-based inferences regarding the PTM and the protein-level abundances are combined to account for the confounding between these two sources. Evaluations on computer simulations, a spike-in experiment with known ground truth, and three biological experiments with different organisms, modification types and data acquisition types demonstrate the improved fold change estimation and detection of differential PTM abundance, as compared to currently used approaches. The proposed framework is implemented in the free and open-source R/Bioconductor package MSstatsPTM.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kohler, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsai, T.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verschueren, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinkle, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vitek, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.24.509068</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MSstatsPTM: Statistical relative quantification of post-translational modifications in bottom-up mass spectrometry-based proteomics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.25.509411v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Increase the flow rate and improve hydrogen deuterium exchange mass spectrometry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.25.509411v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Reversed-phase peptide separation in hydrogen deuterium exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry (MS) must be done with conditions where the back exchange is the slowest possible, the so-called quench conditions of low pH and low temperature. To retain maximum deuterium, separation must also be done as quickly as possible. The low temperature (0 {degrees}C) of quench conditions complicates the separation and leads primarily to a reduction in separation quality and an increase in chromatographic backpressure. To improve the separation in HDX MS, one could use a longer gradient, smaller particles, a different separation mechanism (for example, capillary electrophoresis), or multi-dimensional separations such as combining ion mobility separation with reversed-phase separation. Another way to improve separations under HDX MS quench conditions is to use a higher flow rate where separation efficiency at 0 {degrees}C is more ideal. Higher flow rates, however, require chromatographic systems (both pumps and fittings) with higher backpressure limits. We tested what improvements could be realized with a commercial UPLC/UHPLC system capable of ~20,000 psi backpressure. We found that a maximum flow rate of 225 L/min (using a 1x50mm column packed with 1.8 m particles) was possible and that higher flow rate clearly led to higher peak capacity. HDX MS analysis of both simple and particularly complex samples improved, permitting both shorter separation time, if desired, and providing more deuterium recovery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Peterle, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DePice, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.25.509411</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Increase the flow rate and improve hydrogen deuterium exchange mass spectrometry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.29.510081v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cortical somatostatin interneuron subtypes form cell-type specific circuits 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.29.510081v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The cardinal interneuron classes are a useful simplification of cortical interneuron diversity, but such broad subgroupings glosses over the molecular, morphological, and circuit specificity of interneuron subtypes, most notably among the somatostatin interneuron class. The organizing principles by which the connectivity of these subtypes is specified are unknown. To address this knowledge gap, we designed a series of genetic strategies to target the breadth of somatostatin interneuron subtypes. Using these strategies to target three subtypes that span the entire cortical column, we examined their afferent and efferent connectivity. Our data demonstrated that each of these possesses remarkable reciprocal connectivity with the intracortical or corticofugal pyramidal classes, as well as parvalbumin interneurons. Even when two interneuron subtypes shared the same efferent target, their synaptic targeting proved selective for particular dendritic compartments. We thus provide evidence that subtypes of somatostatin cortical interneurons form cell-type specific cortical circuits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wu, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sevier, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saldi, G.-A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abbott, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, D. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shinde, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rizzo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrera, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marrero, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pörnneke, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rudy, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stafford, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Macosko, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fishell, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.29.510081</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cortical somatostatin interneuron subtypes form cell-type specific circuits]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.29.510195v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeting Fusobacterium nucleatum through Chemical Modifications of Host-Derived Transfer RNA Fragments 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.29.510195v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Host mucosal barriers possess an arsenal of defense molecules to maintain mucosal health. In addition to well-established defense molecules such as antimicrobial peptides and immunoglobulins, a subset of extracellular host-derived small RNAs (sRNAs) also exhibits antimicrobial functions in a cross-kingdom fashion. We recently uncovered the sRNA-mediated crosstalk between human normal oral keratinocytes and Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn), an opportunistic oral pathobiont with increasing implications in extra-oral diseases. Notably, when challenged with Fn, oral keratinocytes released Fn-targeting tRNA-derived sRNAs (tsRNAs), an emerging class of noncoding sRNAs with diverse functions in gene regulation. Additionally, synthetic mimics of the Fn-targeting tsRNAs exhibited highly selective antimicrobial activity against Fn. However, excess synthetic tsRNAs (in the micromolar range) were required to achieve growth inhibition, which limits their potential as antimicrobials. Here, we chemically modify nucleotides of the anti-Fn tsRNAs, termed MOD-tsRNAs, and demonstrate their species- and sequence-specific inhibition in the nanomolar range in various Fn type strains and clinical tumor isolates. In contrast, the same MOD-tsRNAs do not inhibit two representative oral bacteria, Porphoromonas gingivalis (Pg) and Streptococcus mitis (Sm). Additionally, MOD-tsRNAs are internalized by different Fn strains while exhibiting minimal uptake by Pg and Sm. Further RNA sequencing and affinity pull-down assays implicate MOD-tsRNAs as potential ribosome-targeting antimicrobials against Fn. Taken together, our work provides a framework to target opportunistic pathobionts through co-opting host-derived extracellular tsRNAs, whose potential applications may have been limited by their intrinsic instability as well as our limited understanding of the inhibition mechanism.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, P.-T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.29.510195</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeting Fusobacterium nucleatum through Chemical Modifications of Host-Derived Transfer RNA Fragments]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.30.510294v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Protein Language Model Predicts Mutation Pathogenicity and Clinical Prognosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.30.510294v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Accurately predicting the effects of mutations in cancer has the potential to improve existing treatments and identify novel therapeutic targets. In this paper, we evidence for the first time that the large-scale pre-trained protein language models (PPLMs) are zero-shot predictors for two clinically relevant tasks: identifying diseasecausing mutations and predicting patient survival rate. Then we benchmark a series of state-of-the-art (SOTA) PPLMs on 2279 protein variants across 20 cancer-related genes. Our empirical results show that the PPLMs outperform the SOTA baseline, EVE [1], trained on multiple sequence alignment (MSA) data. We also demonstrate that the evolutionary index score, generated from the PPLMs softmax layer, is good indicator for both mutation pathogenicity and patient survival rate. Our paper has taken a key step toward the clinical utility of large-scale PPLMs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ouyang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Su, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.30.510294</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Protein Language Model Predicts Mutation Pathogenicity and Clinical Prognosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.02.510568v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Vascular tortuosity quantification as an outcome metric of the oxygen-induced retinopathy model of ischemic retinopathy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.02.510568v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The murine oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) model is one of the most widely used animal models of ischemic retinopathy, mimicking hallmark pathophysiology of initial vaso-obliteration (VO) resulting in ischemia that drives neovascularization (NV). In addition to NV and VO, human ischemic retinopathies including Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) are characterized by increased vascular tortuosity. Vascular tortuosity is an indicator of disease severity, need to treat, and treatment response in ROP. Current literature investigating novel therapeutics in the OIR model report their effects on NV and VO, but no standardized quantification of vascular tortuosity exists to date despite this metrics relevance to human disease in clinics. The current proof-of-concept study applied a computer-based image analysis algorithm capable of calculating standardized measurements of vascular tortuosity. Quantification of vascular tortuosity correlated with disease activity in OIR analogously to that observed in infants with ROP. Treatment of OIR mice with anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (aflibercept) rescued vascular tortuosity in the model. Altogether, these data demonstrated that vascular tortuosity is a quantifiable feature of the OIR model and may be used as an outcome measurement in future studies investigating new treatment modalities for retinal ischemia.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Marra, K. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robles-Holmes, H. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ideguchi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ly, K. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prenner, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erdogmus, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferrara, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Campbell, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friedlander, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nudleman, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.02.510568</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Vascular tortuosity quantification as an outcome metric of the oxygen-induced retinopathy model of ischemic retinopathy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.11.511819v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Serotonin signaling in the enteric nervous system and connection to autism spectrum disorder: a translational mathematical model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.11.511819v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While the causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain unclear, some studies have shown that serotonin-mediated effects on enteric nervous system (ENT) correlate with ASD-like behavioral phenotype in mice. Introduced here is a mathematical model of interactions between gut serotonin and its impact on ENT. The model was used to identify three key factors that affect ENT size, namely, serotonin production, its clearance, and its ability to act as a growth factor on ENT. The model was used to reproduce experimentally reported results from a mouse model by Margolis et al. (2016), which connected serotonin-mediated ENT hypoplasia to an ASD phenotype. The proposed mathematical model was used to scale the quantified relationship from mice to humans to show how the combination of these three factors can translate to a quantifiable metric that could potentially be correlated to ASD spectrum. A detailed discussion of how ENT hypoplasia could mechanistically affect CNS activity concludes this paper.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kareva, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.11.511819</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Serotonin signaling in the enteric nervous system and connection to autism spectrum disorder: a translational mathematical model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.12.511984v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Extracellular vesicles from non-neuroendocrine SCLC cells promote adhesion and survival of neuroendocrine SCLC cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.12.511984v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) tumors are made up of distinct cell subpopulations, including neuroendocrine (NE) and non-NE cells. While secreted factors from non-NE SCLC cells have been shown to support the growth of the NE cells, the underlying molecular factors are not well understood. Here, we show that exosome-type small extracellular vesicles (SEVs) secreted from non-NE SCLC cells promote adhesion and survival of NE SCLC cells. Proteomic analysis of purified small EVs revealed that extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and integrins are highly enriched in small EVs of non-NE cells whereas nucleic acid-binding proteins are enriched in small EVs purified from NE cells. Addition of select purified ECM proteins identified in purified EVs, specifically fibronectin, laminin 411, and laminin 511, were able to substitute for the role of non-NE-derived SEVs in promoting adhesion, survival, and tumorigenicity of NE SCLC cells. Those same proteins were differentially expressed by human SCLC subtypes. These data suggest that ECM-carrying SEVs secreted by non-NE cells play a key role in supporting SCLC tumor growth and survival.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jimenez, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stolzenbach, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozawa, P. M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez-Solano, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sage, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weaver, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.12.511984</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Extracellular vesicles from non-neuroendocrine SCLC cells promote adhesion and survival of neuroendocrine SCLC cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.14.512116v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The mitochondrial component of human infertility- an increased mtDNA content and an excess of ultra-rare mtDNA variants in aneuploid versus euploid embryos. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.14.512116v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Using low-coverage, whole-genome sequences of trophectoderm biopsies from 11,610 human blastocyst-stage embryos, we analyzed the relationship between chromosomal abnormalities and mitochondrial (mt) DNA dynamics. Comparing 6,208 aneuploid and 5,402 euploid embryos in cohort studies, we found that mtDNA content in aneuploid embryos was significantly higher than that in euploid embryos. This outcome was confirmed through intrafamilial analyses of embryos with matched parents and in vitro fertilization cycles, and it occurred independent of maternal age. Additional human population-based studies uncovered a higher abundance of ultra-rare mtDNA variants located in never-altered positions in the human population in aneuploid compared to euploid embryos in both cohort- and family-based analyses. This maternal age-independent association of increased mtDNA content and aneuploidy in human embryos may reflect a novel mechanism of purifying selection against potentially deleterious mtDNA variants, which arise from germline or early developmental mtDNA damaging events, that occurs in human embryos prior to implantation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ri, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ree, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oreshkov, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tofilo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirillova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zvereva, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunbin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yurov, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salumets, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tilly, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fellay, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazunin, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.14.512116</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The mitochondrial component of human infertility- an increased mtDNA content and an excess of ultra-rare mtDNA variants in aneuploid versus euploid embryos.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.15.512163v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An Associative Memory Hamiltonian Model for DNA and Nucleosomes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.15.512163v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A model for DNA and nucleosomes is introduced with the goal of studying chromosomes from a single base level all the way to higher-order chromatin structures. This model, dubbed the Widely Editable Chromatin Model (WEChroM), is able to reproduce the complex mechanics of the double helix including its bending persistence length and twisting persistence length, and their respective temperature dependence. The WEChroM Hamiltonian is composed of chain connectivity, steric interactions, and associative memory terms representing all remaining interactions leading to the structure, dynamics, and mechanical characteristics of the B-DNA. Several applications of this model are discussed to demonstrate its applicability. WEChroM is used to investigate the behavior of circular DNA in the presence of positive and negative supercoiling. We show that it recapitulates the formation of plectonemes and of structural defects that relax mechanical stress. The model spontaneously manifests an asymmetric behavior with respect to positive or negative supercoiling, similarly to what was previously observed in experiments. Additionally, we show that the associative memory Hamiltonian is also capable of reproducing the free energy of partial DNA unwrapping from nucleosomes. WEChroM can readily emulate the continuously variable mechanical properties of the 10nm fiber and, by virtue of its simplicity, allows the simulation of molecular systems large enough to study the structural ensembles of genes. WEChroM is implemented in the OpenMM simulation toolkits and is freely available for public use.

Author SummaryThe structural ensembles of genes have been so far out of the reach of theoretical and computational investigations because genes are molecular complexes too big to be tackled with even the most efficient computational chemistry approaches and yet too strongly affected by heterogeneous molecular factors to be effectively modeled as a simple polymer. In this work, we develop a computationally efficient, easy-to-use, and widely editable chromatin model to study the principles of DNA folding at the gene scale. Using the framework of Associative Memory Hamiltonians, this model reproduces the structural and mechanical properties of double-stranded DNA and accounts for the effects of nucleosome-forming histone octamers and other proteins bound to DNA. Our results open the path to studying the structural and mechanical ensembles of genetic systems as large as tens of kilobases of chromatin, i.e., the size of mammalian genes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.15.512163</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An Associative Memory Hamiltonian Model for DNA and Nucleosomes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.17.512463v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genome-wide phage susceptibility analysis in Acinetobacter baumannii reveals capsule modulation as a central determinant of phage defense 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.17.512463v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Phage have gained renewed interest as an adjunctive treatment for life-threatening infections with the resistant nosocomial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. Our understanding of how A. baumannii defends against phage remains limited, although this information could lead to improved antimicrobial therapies. To address this problem, we identified genome-wide determinants of phage susceptibility in A. baumannii using Tn-seq. These studies focused on the lytic phage Loki, which targets Acinetobacter by unknown mechanisms. We identified 41 candidate loci that increase susceptibility to Loki when disrupted, and 10 that decrease susceptibility. Combined with spontaneous resistance mapping, our results support the model that Loki uses the K3 capsule as an essential receptor, and that capsule modulation provides A. baumannii with strategies to control vulnerability to phage. A key center of this control is transcriptional regulation of capsule synthesis and phage virulence by the global regulator BfmRS. Mutations hyperactivating BfmRS simultaneously increase capsule levels, Loki replication, and host killing, while BfmRS-inactivating mutations have the opposite effect, reducing capsule and blocking Loki infection. We identified novel BfmRS-activating mutations, including knockouts of a T2 RNase protein and the disulfide formation enzyme DsbA, that hypersensitize bacteria to phage challenge. We further found that mutation of a glycosyltransferase known to alter capsule structure and bacterial virulence can also cause complete phage resistance. Finally, additional factors including lipooligosaccharide and Lon protease act independently of capsule modulation to interfere with Loki infection. This work demonstrates that regulatory and structural modulation of capsule, known to alter A. baumannii virulence, is also a major determinant of susceptibility to phage.

Author SummaryAntibiotic-resistant infections with Acinetobacter baumannii are a major problem in critical care units and have increased in frequency during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virulence of these infections depends on a polysaccharide capsule surrounding the bacterium. Phage, or viruses that kill bacteria, represent a promising alternative therapy against highly antibiotic-resistant A. baumannii infections, and A. baumannii-specific phage often target the capsule. Here, we use high-throughput genetics to analyze how A. baumannii defends against phage and identify ways to potentiate their killing activity. We found that stressing the bacteria in ways that cause augmented production of capsule also causes hyper-susceptibility to phage. By contrast, turning off the stress response, or mutating the capsule structure, causes complete phage resistance. Altering another surface structure, lipooligosaccharide, or an intracellular protease also enhances phage attack. Modulating the amounts or makeup of capsular polysaccharide is known to influence virulence in A. baumannii. This work thus uncovers a connection between phage pressure and the evolution of virulence in A. baumannii, and it identifies control mechanisms that may be leveraged for improving future phage-based antimicrobial therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bai, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raustad, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Denoncourt, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Opijnen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geisinger, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.17.512463</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genome-wide phage susceptibility analysis in Acinetobacter baumannii reveals capsule modulation as a central determinant of phage defense]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.20.513114v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neural predictors of subjective fear depend on the situation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.20.513114v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ABSTRSCTThe extent to which neural representations of fear experience depend on or generalize across the situational context has remained unclear. We systematically manipulated variation within and across three distinct fearevocative situations including fear of heights, spiders, and social threats. Participants (n=21, 10 females and 11 males) viewed 20 second clips depicting spiders, heights, or social encounters, and rated fear after each video. Searchlight multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) was used to identify whether and which brain regions carry information that predicts fear experience, and the degree to which the fear-predictive neural codes in these areas depend upon or generalize across the situations. The overwhelming majority of brain regions carrying information about fear did so in a situation dependent manner. These findings suggest that local neural representations of fear experience are unlikely to involve a singular pattern, but rather a collection of multiple heterogeneous brain states
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kragel, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satpute, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-10-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.20.513114</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neural predictors of subjective fear depend on the situation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-10-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.31.514466v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
USP10 strikes down Wnt/β-catenin signaling by dual-wielding deubiquitinase activity and phase transition potential 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.31.514466v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Wnt/{beta}-catenin signaling is a conserved pathway crucially governing development, homeostasis and oncogenesis. Discovery of novel regulators holds great values in both basic and translational research. Through screening, we identified a deubiquitinase (DUB) USP10 as a novel and critical modulator of {beta}-catenin. Mechanistically, USP10 binds to key scaffold Axin1 via conserved motifs and stabilizes Axin1 through K48-linked deubiquitination, and surprisingly, tethers Axin1 and {beta}-catenin physically while promoting phase separation for {beta}-catenin suppression regardless of its enzymatic activity. Functionally, USP10 prominently regulates embryonic development and intestinal homeostasis by antagonizing {beta}-catenin via DUB activity. In colorectal cancer, USP10 substantially represses cancer growth mainly through physical binding compensation and phase separation promotion and correlates with Wnt/{beta}-catenin magnitude clinically. Collectively, we discovered USP10 functioning in multiple biological processes against {beta}-catenin and unearthed a novel enzyme-dependent and -independent "dual-regulating" mechanism by which USP10 utilizes parallelly and context-dependently. USP10 inhibitor was suggested in treating certain Wnt-related diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mao, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tong, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheng, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.31.514466</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[USP10 strikes down Wnt/β-catenin signaling by dual-wielding deubiquitinase activity and phase transition potential]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.31.514553v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeting AAV vectors to the CNS via de novo engineered capsid-receptor interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.31.514553v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Viruses have evolved the ability to bind and enter cells through interactions with a wide variety of host cell macromolecules. Here, we screened for AAV capsids that bind two host cell proteins expressed on the mouse blood-brain barrier, LY6A or the related protein LY6C1. Introducing interactions with either protein target generated hundreds of capsids with dramatically enhanced central nervous system (CNS) tropisms. In contrast to the AAV-PHP.B capsid family, which interacts with LY6A and only exhibits its enhanced CNS tropism in a subset of mouse strains, the capsids that engage LY6C1 maintain their CNS tropism in BALB/cJ mice. Compared to conventional in vivo screens for CNS cell transducing capsids, a single round of protein target binding screening recovered significantly more capsids with enhanced performance that were validated in subsequent in vivo screens. Moreover, the initial screening round generated reproducible and quantitative target binding data that enabled the efficient machine learning-guided generation of more diverse targetspecific capsids. This work demonstrates that AAV capsids can be directly targeted to specific proteins to generate potent gene delivery vectors with known mechanisms of action and predictable tropisms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, K. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sorensen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barry, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Azari, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beddow, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tobey, I. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eid, F.-E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, Y. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deverman, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.10.31.514553</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeting AAV vectors to the CNS via de novo engineered capsid-receptor interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.05.515287v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Strategies for increasing the depth and throughput of protein analysis by plexDIA 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.05.515287v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Accurate protein quantification is key to identifying protein markers, regulatory relationships between proteins, and pathophysiological mechanisms. Realizing this potential requires sensitive and deep protein analysis of a large number of samples. Toward this goal, proteomics throughput can be increased by parallelizing the analysis of both precursors and samples using multiplexed data independent acquisition (DIA) implemented by the plexDIA framework: https://plexDIA.slavovlab.net. Here we demonstrate the improved precisions of RT estimates within plexDIA and how this enables more accurate protein quantification. plexDIA has demonstrated multiplicative gains in throughput, and these gains may be substantially amplified by improving the multiplexing reagents, data acquisition and interpretation. We discuss future directions for advancing plexDIA, which include engineering optimized mass-tags for high-plexDIA, introducing isotopologous carriers, and developing algorithms that utilize the regular structures of plexDIA data to improve sensitivity, proteome coverage and quantitative accuracy. These advances in plexDIA will increase the throughput of functional proteomic assays, including quantifying protein conformations, turnover dynamics, modifications states and activities. The sensitivity of these assays will extend to single-cell analysis, thus enabling functional single-cell protein analysis.



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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Derks, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.05.515287</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Strategies for increasing the depth and throughput of protein analysis by plexDIA]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.05.515314v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neural Entrainment to Musical Pulse In Naturalistic Music Is Preserved In Aging: Implications for Music-Based Interventions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.05.515314v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neural entrainment to musical rhythm is thought to underlie the perception and production of music. In aging populations, the strength of neural entrainment to rhythm has been found to be attenuated, particularly during attentive listening to auditory streams. However, previous studies on neural entrainment to rhythm and aging have often employed artificial auditory rhythms or limited pieces of recorded, naturalistic music, failing to account for the diversity of rhythmic structures found in natural music. As part of larger project assessing a novel music-based intervention for healthy aging, we investigated neural entrainment to musical rhythms in the electroencephalogram (EEG) while participants listened to self-selected musical recordings across a sample of younger and older adults. We specifically measured neural entrainment to the level of musical pulse--quantified here as the phase-locking value (PLV)--after normalizing the PLVs to each musical recordings detected pulse frequency. As predicted, we observed strong neural phase-locking to musical pulse, and to the sub-harmonic and harmonic levels of musical meter. Overall, PLVs were not significantly different between older and younger adults. This preserved neural entrainment to musical pulse and rhythm could support the design of music-based interventions that aim to modulate endogenous brain activity via self-selected music for healthy cognitive aging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tichko, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Page, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Large, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.05.515314</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neural Entrainment to Musical Pulse In Naturalistic Music Is Preserved In Aging: Implications for Music-Based Interventions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.10.515969v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DNA-enhanced CuAAC ligand enables live-cell detection of intracellular biomolecules 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.10.515969v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Of the various conjugation strategies for cellular biomolecules, Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) is the preferred click chemistry approach due to its fast reaction rate and the commercial availability of a wide range of conjugates. While extracellular labeling of biomolecules using CuAAC has been widely adopted, intracellular labeling in live cells has been challenging as the high copper concentrations required for CuAAC reaction is toxic to biological systems. As a critical first step towards CuAAC-mediated intracellular labeling, an ultrasensitive CuAAC ligand is needed to reduce cytosolic copper concentrations while maintaining fast reaction kinetics. Here, we developed BTT-DNA, a new DNA oligomer-conjugated CuAAC ligand for click reaction biomolecular labeling. The DNA oligo attachment serves several purposes, including: 1. Increased localization of copper atoms near the ligand, which enables ligation of azide tags with much lower copper concentrations than commercially available CuAAC ligands and without the addition of exogenous copper salt; 2. Allows nucleic acid template-driven proximity ligation by choosing the attached DNA sequence, 3. Enables the liposome encapsulation and delivery of the ligand into live cells, and 4. Facilitates intracellular labeling of nascent phospholipids in live cells. We demonstrate that BTT-DNA mediated labeling has little to no effect on the overall cell health.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nian, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brigandi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.10.515969</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DNA-enhanced CuAAC ligand enables live-cell detection of intracellular biomolecules]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.13.516306v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Paired aptamer capture and FISH detection of individual virions enables cell-free determination of infectious titer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.13.516306v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Early detection of viruses can prevent the uncontrolled spread of viral infections. Determination of viral infectivity is also critical for determining the dosage of gene therapies, including vector-based vaccines, CAR T-cell therapies, and CRISPR therapeutics. In both cases, for viral pathogens and viral vector delivery vehicles, fast and accurate measurement of infectious titer is desirable. The most common methods for virus detection are antigen-based (rapid but not sensitive) and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-based (sensitive but not rapid). Current viral titer methods heavily rely on cultured cells, which introduces variability within labs and between labs. Thus, it is highly desirable to directly determine the infectious titer without using cells. Here, we report the development of a direct, fast, and sensitive assay for virus detection (dubbed rapid-aptamer FISH or raptamer FISH) and cell-free determination of infectious titers. Importantly, we demonstrate that the virions captured are "infectious," thus serving as a more consistent proxy of infectious titer. This assay is unique because it first captures viruses bearing an intact coat protein using an aptamer, then detects genomes directly in individual virions using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)- thus, it is selective for infectious particles (i.e., positive for coat protein and positive for genome).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Potts, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nian, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCormick, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fanari, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.13.516306</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Paired aptamer capture and FISH detection of individual virions enables cell-free determination of infectious titer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.13.516348v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cultivation and Fluorescent in situ hybridization suggest that some shipworm species acquire endosymbiotic bacteria through indirect horizontal transmission 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.13.516348v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Beneficial microbial symbionts provide essential functions for their host from nutrients to defense against disease. Whether hosts acquire their symbionts directly from parents (vertical transmission) or by sampling from the environment (horizontal transmission) can have dramatic impacts on host adaptability and, in the case of ecosystem engineers, ecosystem health. Wood-boring bivalve mollusks (Teredinidae shipworms) act as ecosystem engineers in marine environments, creating habitat out of submerged wood for fish and invertebrates. Essential to shipworm success is their community of endosymbiotic gill bacteria that produce the enzymes necessary for wood digestion. How shipworms acquire their symbionts, however, remains largely unexplored. Using culturing, fluorescence in-situ hybridization, confocal microscopy, and tank experiments, we provide evidence suggesting the mode of symbiont transmission the shipworms for either the shipworm, Lyrodus pedicellatus or Teredo bartschi or both. Symbiotic bacteria were not detected by cultivation or microscopy in brooding larvae within gravid adults or as veliger larvae collected from the water column, but were observed in adult specimens and juveniles that had begun burrowing into wood. These data suggest that the specimens examined have both aposymbiotic and symbiotic life phases and acquire their symbionts through indirect horizontal transmission. Our findings reveal how the long-term brooders L. pedicellatus and/or T. bartschi acquire their gill endosymbionts.

IMPORTANCEHow eukaryotic hosts acquire their microbial symbionts can have significant consequences for their ability to adapt to varied environments. Although wood-boring bivalve shipworms have diverse reproductive strategies and are found in unique environments across the globe, little is known about how they transmit their essential gill endosymbionts. We used the closely related shipworms, Lyrodus pedicellatus and/or Teredo bartschi to study how these long-term brooding shipworms acquire their gill endosymbionts. Our work, unlike previous claims for the broadcast spawning species Bankia setacae which reportedly transmits its symbionts directly from parent to offspring, suggests that juvenile L. pedicellatus and/or T. bartschi acquire their symbionts through horizontal transmission rather than directly from their parents. This work reveals the mechanism by which some brooding shipworm species acquire their symbionts, adding to our limited understanding of intracellular symbiont transmission of Teredinidae.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Speare, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Distel, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.13.516348</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cultivation and Fluorescent in situ hybridization suggest that some shipworm species acquire endosymbiotic bacteria through indirect horizontal transmission]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.16.516674v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Alternate Ligand Jagged Enhances the Robustness of Notch Signaling Patterns 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.16.516674v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Notch pathway, an example of juxtacrine signaling, is an evolutionary conserved cell-cell communication mechanism. It governs emergent spatiotemporal patterning in tissues during development, wound healing and tumorigenesis. Communication occurs when Notch receptors of one cell bind to either of its ligands, Delta/Jagged of neighboring cell. In general, Delta-mediated signaling drives neighboring cells to have an opposite fate (lateral inhibition) whereas Jagged-mediated signaling drives cells to maintain similar fates (lateral induction). Here, By deriving and solving a reduced set of 12 coupled ordinary differential equations for Notch-Delta-Jagged system on a hexagonal grid of cells, we determine the allowed states across different parameter sets. We also show that Jagged (at low dose) acts synergistically with Delta to enable more robust pattern formation, despite of its lateral induction property; this effect is due to competition with Delta over binding with Notch, as experimentally observed in the case of chick inner ear development. Finally, we show that how Jagged can help to expand the bistable (both Uniform and Hexagon phases are stable) region, where a local perturbation can spread over time in a ordered manner to create a biologically relevant, defect-free lateral inhibition pattern.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mukherjee, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.16.516674</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Alternate Ligand Jagged Enhances the Robustness of Notch Signaling Patterns]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.16.516776v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dynamics of alpha suppression index both modality specific and general attention processes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.16.516776v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
EEG alpha power varies under many circumstances requiring visual attention. However, mounting evidence indicates that alpha may not only serve visual processing, but also the processing of stimuli presented in other sensory modalities, including hearing. We previously showed that alpha dynamics during an auditory task vary as a function of competition from the visual modality (Clements et al., 2022) suggesting that alpha may be engaged in multimodal processing. Here we assessed the impact of allocating attention to the visual or auditory modality on alpha dynamics, during the preparatory period of a bimodal-cued conflict task. In this task, precues indicated the modality (vision, hearing) relevant to a subsequent reaction stimulus. This task afforded us the opportunity to assess alpha during modality-specific preparation and while switching between modalities. Alpha suppression following the precue occurred in all conditions indicating that it may reflect general preparatory mechanisms. However, we observed a switch effect when preparing to attend to the auditory modality, in which greater alpha suppression was elicited when switching to the auditory modality compared to repeating. No switch effect was evident when preparing to attend to visual information (although robust suppression did occur in both conditions). In addition, waning alpha suppression preceded error trials, irrespective of sensory modality. These findings indicate that alpha can be used to monitor the level of preparatory attention to process both visual and auditory information. These results support the emerging view that alpha band activity may index a general attention control mechanism used across modalities, at least vision and hearing.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Clements, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gyurkovics, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Low, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kramer, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beck, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fabiani, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gratton, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.16.516776</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dynamics of alpha suppression index both modality specific and general attention processes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.20.517255v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A compact breast shape acquisition system for improving diffuse optical tomography image reconstructions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.20.517255v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) has been investigated for diagnosing malignant breast lesions but its accuracy relies on model-based image reconstructions which in turn depends on the accuracy of breast shape acquisition. In this work, we have developed a dual-camera structured light imaging (SLI) breast shape acquisition system tailored for a mammography-like compression setting. Illumination pattern intensity is dynamically adjusted to account for skin tone differences while thickness-informed pattern masking reduces artifacts due to specular reflections. This compact system is affixed to a rigid mount that can be installed into existing mammography or parallel-plate DOT systems without the need for camera-projector re-calibration. Our SLI system produces sub-millimeter resolution with a mean surface error of 0.26 mm. This breast shape acquisition system results in more accurate surface recovery, with an average 1.6-fold reduction in surface estimation errors over a reference method via contour extrusion. Such improvement translates to 25% to 50% reduction in mean squared error in the recovered absorption coefficient for a series of simulated tumors 1-2 cm below the skin.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vanegas, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nunez, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.20.517255</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A compact breast shape acquisition system for improving diffuse optical tomography image reconstructions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.23.517719v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Effect of depth on crowding investigated with a multi-depth plane display 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.23.517719v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Crowding occurs when the presence of nearby features causes highly visible objects to become unrecognizable. Although crowding has implications for many everyday tasks and the tremendous amounts of research reflect its importance, surprisingly little is known about how depth affects crowding. Most available studies show that stereoscopic disparity reduces crowding, indicating that crowding may be relatively unimportant in three-dimensional environments. However, most previous studies tested only small stereoscopic differences in depth in which disparity, defocus blur, and accommodation are inconsistent with the real world. Using a novel multi-depth plane display, this study investigated how large (0.54 - 2.25 diopters), real differences in target-flanker depth, representative of those experienced between many objects in the real world, affect crowding. Our findings show that large differences in target-flanker depth increased crowding in the majority of observers, contrary to previous work showing reduced crowding in the presence of small depth differences. Furthermore, when the target was at fixation depth, crowding was generally more pronounced when the flankers were behind the target as opposed to in front of it. However, when the flankers were at fixation depth, crowding was generally more pronounced when the target was behind the flankers. These findings suggest that crowding from clutter outside the limits of binocular fusion can still have a significant impact on object recognition and visual perception in the peripheral field.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smithers, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Altham, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.23.517719</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Effect of depth on crowding investigated with a multi-depth plane display]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.28.518250v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Despite impaired binocular function, binocular disparity integration across the visual field is spared in normal aging and glaucoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.28.518250v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveTo examine how binocularly asymmetric glaucomatous visual field damage affects processing of binocular disparity across the visual field.

DesignCase-control study.

Participants and ControlsA sample of 18 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma, 16 age-matched controls, and 13 young controls.

MethodsParticipants underwent standard clinical assessments of binocular visual acuity, binocular contrast sensitivity, stereoacuity, and perimetry. We employed a previously validated psychophysical procedure to measure how sensitivity to binocular disparity varied across spatial frequencies and visual field sectors, i.e. with full-field stimuli spanning the central 21{degrees} of the visual field, and with stimuli restricted to annular regions spanning 0{degrees}-3{degrees}, 3{degrees}-9{degrees} or 9{degrees}-21{degrees}.

Main Outcome MeasuresWe verified the presence of binocularly asymmetric glaucomatous visual field damage by comparing--between the two eyes-- the mean deviation values obtained from the Humphrey Field Analyzer (HFA) 24-2 test. To assess the spatial-frequency tuning of disparity sensitivity across the visual field of patients and controls, we fit disparity sensitivity data to log-parabola models and compared fitted model parameters. Lastly, we employed disparity sensitivity measurements from restricted visual field conditions to model different possible scenarios regarding how disparity information is combined across visual field sectors. We adjudicated between the potential mechanisms by comparing model predictions to the observed patterns of disparity sensitivity with full-field stimuli.

ResultsThe interocular difference in HFA 24-2 mean deviation was greater in glaucoma patients compared to both young and age-matched controls (ps=.01). Across participant groups foveal regions preferentially processed disparities at finer spatial scales, whereas periphery regions were tuned for coarser scales (p<.001). Disparity sensitivity also decreased from the fovea to the periphery (p<.001) and across participant groups (ps<.01). Finally, similar to controls, glaucoma patients exhibited near-optimal disparity integration, specifically at low spatial frequencies (p<.001).

ConclusionsContrary to the conventional view that glaucoma spares central vision, we find that glaucomatous damage causes a widespread loss of disparity sensitivity across both foveal and peripheral regions. Despite these losses, cortical integration mechanisms appear to be well preserved, suggesting that glaucoma patients make the best possible use of their remaining binocular function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maiello, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kwon, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.28.518250</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Despite impaired binocular function, binocular disparity integration across the visual field is spared in normal aging and glaucoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.28.518265v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rethinking bacterial relationships in light of their molecular abilities 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.28.518265v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Determining the repertoire of a microbes molecular functions is a central question in microbial biology. Modern techniques achieve this goal by comparing microbial genetic material against reference databases of functionally annotated genes/proteins or known taxonomic markers such as 16S rRNA. Here we describe a novel approach to exploring bacterial functional repertoires without reference databases. Our Fusion scheme establishes functional relationships between bacteria and assigns organisms to Fusion-taxa that differ from otherwise defined taxonomic clades. Three key findings of our work stand out. First, bacterial functional comparisons outperform marker genes in assigning taxonomic clades. Fusion profiles are also better for this task than other functional annotation schemes. Second, Fusion-taxa are robust to addition of novel organisms and are, arguably, able to capture the environment-driven bacterial diversity. Finally, our alignment-free nucleic acid-based Siamese Neural Network model, created using Fusion functions, enables finding shared functionality of very distant, possibly structurally different, microbial homologs. Our work can thus help annotate functional repertoires of bacterial organisms and further guide our understanding of microbial communities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mahlich, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Velaga, P. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Paolis Kaluza, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friedberg, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bromberg, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.28.518265</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rethinking bacterial relationships in light of their molecular abilities]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.01.518723v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neural mechanisms of parasite-induced summiting behavior in 'zombie' Drosophila 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.01.518723v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
For at least two centuries, scientists have been enthralled by the "zombie" behaviors induced by mind-controlling parasites. Despite this interest, the mechanistic bases of these uncanny processes have remained mostly a mystery. Here, we leverage the recently established Entomophthora muscae-Drosophila melanogaster "zombie fly" system to reveal the molecular and cellular underpinnings of summit disease, a manipulated behavior evoked by many fungal parasites. Using a new, high-throughput behavior assay to measure summiting, we discovered that summiting behavior is characterized by a burst of locomotion and requires the host circadian and neurosecretory systems, specifically DN1p circadian neurons, pars intercerebralis to corpora allata projecting (PI-CA) neurons and corpora allata (CA), who are solely responsible for juvenile hormone (JH) synthesis and release. Summiting is a fleeting phenomenon, posing a challenge for physiological and biochemical experiments requiring tissue from summiting flies. We addressed this with a machine learning classifier to identify summiting animals in real time. PI-CA neurons and CA appear to be intact in summiting animals, despite E. muscae cells invading the host brain, particularly in the superior medial protocerebrum (SMP), the neuropil that contains DN1p axons and PI-CA dendrites. The blood-brain barrier of flies late in their infection was significantly permeabilized, suggesting that factors in the hemolymph may have greater access to the central nervous system during summiting. Metabolomic analysis of hemolymph from summiting flies revealed differential abundance of several compounds compared to non-summiting flies. Transfusing the hemolymph of summiting flies into non-summiting recipients induced a burst of locomotion, demonstrating that factor(s) in the hemolymph likely cause summiting behavior. Altogether, our work reveals a neuro-mechanistic model for summiting wherein fungal cells perturb the flys hemolymph, activating the neurohormonal pathway linking clock neurons to juvenile hormone production in the CA, ultimately inducing locomotor activity in their host.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Elya, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lavrentovich, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pasadyn, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duval, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basak, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saykina, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Bivort, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.01.518723</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neural mechanisms of parasite-induced summiting behavior in 'zombie' Drosophila]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.01.518724v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The complete sequence of a human Y chromosome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.01.518724v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The human Y chromosome has been notoriously difficult to sequence and assemble because of its complex repeat structure including long palindromes, tandem repeats, and segmental duplications1-3. As a result, more than half of the Y chromosome is missing from the GRCh38 reference sequence and it remains the last human chromosome to be finished4, 5. Here, the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) consortium presents the complete 62,460,029 base pair sequence of a human Y chromosome from the HG002 genome (T2T-Y) that corrects multiple errors in GRCh38-Y and adds over 30 million base pairs of sequence to the reference, revealing the complete ampliconic structures of TSPY, DAZ, and RBMY gene families; 41 additional protein-coding genes, mostly from the TSPY family; and an alternating pattern of human satellite 1 and 3 blocks in the heterochromatic Yq12 region. We have combined T2T-Y with a prior assembly of the CHM13 genome4 and mapped available population variation, clinical variants, and functional genomics data to produce a complete and comprehensive reference sequence for all 24 human chromosomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rhie, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nurk, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cechova, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoyt, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Altemose, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hook, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koren, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rautiainen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alexandrov, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bzikadze, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, N.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chin, C.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diekhans, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flicek, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Formenti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fungtammasan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia Giron, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garrison, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gershman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerton, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grady, P. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guarracino, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haggerty, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halabian, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hansen, N. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hartley, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harvey, W. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haukness, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heinz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hourlier, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hubley, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hunt, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hwang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kesharwani, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Logsdon, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lucas, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makalowski,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.01.518724</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The complete sequence of a human Y chromosome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.02.518912v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Estimating Nutrient Concentration in Food Using Untargeted Metabolomics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.02.518912v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Untargeted metabolomics can detect hundreds of biochemicals in food, yet without standards, it cannot quantify them. Here we show that we can take advantage of the universal scaling of nutrient concentrations to estimate the concentration of all biochemicals detected by untargeted metabolomics. We validate our method on 20 raw foods, finding an excellent agreement between the predicted and the experimentally observed concentrations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sebek, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menichetti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.02.518912</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Estimating Nutrient Concentration in Food Using Untargeted Metabolomics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.05.519185v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Co-occurrence and cooperation between comammox and anammox bacteria in a full-scale attached growth municipal wastewater treatment process. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.05.519185v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cooperation between comammox and anammox bacteria for nitrogen removal has been recently reported in laboratory-scale systems including synthetic community construct; however, there are no reports of full-scale municipal wastewater treatment systems with such cooperation. Here, we report intrinsic and extant kinetics as well as genome-resolved community characterization of a full-scale integrated fixed film activated sludge (IFAS) system where comammox and anammox bacteria co-occur and appear to drive nitrogen loss. Intrinsic batch kinetic assays indicated that majority of the aerobic ammonia oxidation was driven by comammox bacteria (1.75 {+/-} 0.08 mg-N/g TS-h) in the attached growth phase with minimal contribution by ammonia oxidizing bacteria. Interestingly, a portion of total inorganic nitrogen ([~]8%) was consistently lost during these aerobic assays. Aerobic nitrite oxidation assays eliminated the possibility of denitrification as a cause of nitrogen loss, while anaerobic ammonia oxidation assays resulted in rates consistent with anammox stoichiometry. Full-scale experiments at different dissolved oxygen (DO = 2-6 mg/L) set points indicated persistent nitrogen loss that was partly sensitive to DO concentrations. Genome-resolved metagenomics confirmed high abundance (relative abundance 6.53 {+/-} 0.34%) of two Brocadia-like anammox populations while comammox bacteria within the Ca. Nitrospira nitrosa cluster were lower in abundance (0.37% {+/-} 0.03%) and Nitrosomonas-like ammonia oxidizers even lower (0.12% {+/-} 0.02%). Collectively, our study reports for the first time the co-occurrence and co-operation of comammox and anammox bacteria in a full-scale municipal wastewater treatment system.

SynopsisComammox and anammox cooperation resulted in dissolved oxygen concentration dependent nitrogen loss in municipal wastewater treatment system.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vilardi, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cotto, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bachmann, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parsons, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klaus, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bott, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.05.519185</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Co-occurrence and cooperation between comammox and anammox bacteria in a full-scale attached growth municipal wastewater treatment process.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.06.518975v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Layer-dependent activity in the human superior colliculus during working memory 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.06.518975v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We examined the superior colliculus (SC) with ultra-high resolution 7-Tesla fMRI during an N-back working memory task. We observed both increased BOLD signal intensity and functional connectivity that followed a layer-dependent pattern predicted from anatomical connections between SC and other brain structures important for visual processing, motor control, and executive function. Our results highlight a role for the human SC in cognitive functions that usually associated with the cerebral cortex.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kragel, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wager, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bianciardi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satpute, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quigley, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrett, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katsumi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Theriault, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.06.518975</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Layer-dependent activity in the human superior colliculus during working memory]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.09.519633v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
RecA balances genomic stability and evolution using many successive mismatch tolerant homology tests 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.09.519633v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A double-strand break (DSB) must usually be repaired with as little alteration to the genome as possible, though some rare alterations provide valuable genomic evolution. In E.coli, a DSB undergoes resection to give 3 ssDNA tails. These invading strand tails are loaded with RecA protein and then rapidly search the genome for the corresponding (allelic) partner. Thus, a searching ssDNA/RecA filament must almost never make stable non-allelic contact; therefore, it has been puzzling that RecA forms stable products that join partially homologous sequences. Homology testing by RecA family proteins begins with an 8-bp test, followed by successive homology tests of base pair triplets. Here we introduce a highly simplified homology recognition model to highlight how mismatch sensitivity could affect non-allelic pairing in bacterial genomes. The model predicts that even if each triplet test accepts 2 mismatches, RecA can have [~] 95% probability of establishing allelic pairing after a DSB in E. coli; however, that accuracy requires homology testing {gap}50 contiguous base pairs, consistent with the homology lengths probed in vivo. In contrast, if no mismatches are accepted testing 14 bp is sufficient, and testing more base pairs does not reduce non-allelic pairing because bacterial genomes contain long repeats.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>PRENTISS, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prevost, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godoy, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kleckner, N. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Danilowicz, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.09.519633</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[RecA balances genomic stability and evolution using many successive mismatch tolerant homology tests]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.09.519812v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The role of human superior colliculus in affective experiences during visual and somatosensory stimulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.09.519812v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The superior colliculus is often studied for its role in visually guided behaviors, but research in non-human animals indicates it is a midbrain hub for processing sensory information from multiple domains, including interoception (which is associated with affect). We used ultra-high field 7-Tesla fMRI to extend this work to humans, modeling superior colliculus BOLD signal intensity during visual or somatosensory stimulation (N = 40 in each sensory modality), both under aversive and neutral affective intensity. As hypothesized, the superior colliculus showed increased BOLD signal intensity in the dorsal and ventral subregions during visual and somatosensory stimulation, respectively. The entire superior colliculus also showed increased BOLD signal intensity during aversive compared to neural conditions. The superior colliculus BOLD signal intensity also correlated with a preregistered set of brain regions involved in visual, somatosensory, and interoceptive processing.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kragel, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savoca, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bianciardi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wager, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quigley, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satpute, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrett, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Theriault, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.09.519812</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The role of human superior colliculus in affective experiences during visual and somatosensory stimulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.10.519859v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ocean currents drive the worldwide colonization of the most widespread marine plant, eelgrass (Zostera marina) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.10.519859v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Currents are unique drivers of oceanic phylogeography and so determine the distribution of marine coastal species, along with past glaciations and sea level changes. Here, we reconstruct the worldwide colonization history of eelgrass (Zostera marina L.), the most widely distributed marine flowering plant or seagrass from its origin in the Northwest Pacific, based on nuclear and chloroplast genomes. We identified two divergent Pacific clades with evidence for admixture along the East Pacific coast. Multiple west to east (trans-Pacific) colonization events support the key role of the North Pacific Current. Time-calibrated nuclear and chloroplast phylogenies yielded concordant estimates of the arrival of Z. marina in the Atlantic through the Canadian Arctic, suggesting that eelgrass-based ecosystems, hotspots of biodiversity and carbon sequestration, have only been present since [~]208 Kya (thousand years ago). Mediterranean populations were founded [~]53 Kya while extant distributions along western and eastern Atlantic shores coincide with the end of the Last Glacial Maximum ([~]20 Kya). The recent colonization and 5-to 7-fold lower genomic diversity of Atlantic compared to the Pacific populations raises concern and opportunity about how Atlantic eelgrass might respond to rapidly warming coastal oceans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khachaturyan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matschiner, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Healey, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bauer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cusson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duffy, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fodrie, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gill, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grimwood, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hori, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hovel, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jahnke, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keymanesh, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kruschel, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mamidi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moksnes, P.-O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakaoka, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pennacchio, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reiss, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rossi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruesink, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schultz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Talbot, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Unsworth, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmutz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dagan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stachowicz, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van de Peer, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olsen, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reusch, T. B. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.10.519859</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ocean currents drive the worldwide colonization of the most widespread marine plant, eelgrass (Zostera marina)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.10.519931v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Who bears the load? IOP-induced collagen fiber recruitment over the corneoscleral shell 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.10.519931v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Collagen is the main load-bearing component of cornea and sclera. When stretched, both of these tissues exhibit a behavior known as collagen fiber recruitment. In recruitment, as the tissues stretch the constitutive collagen fibers lose their natural waviness, progressively straightening. Recruited, straight, fibers bear substantially more mechanical load than non-recruited, wavy, fibers. As such, the process of recruitment underlies the well-established nonlinear macroscopic behavior of the corneoscleral shell. Recruitment has an interesting implication: when recruitment is incomplete, only a fraction of the collagen fibers is actually contributing to bear the loads, with the rest remaining "in reserve". In other words, at a given intraocular pressure (IOP), it is possible that not all the collagen fibers of the cornea and sclera are actually contributing to bear the loads.

To the best of our knowledge, the fraction of corneoscleral shell fibers recruited and contributing to bear the load of IOP has not been reported. Our goal was to obtain regionally-resolved estimates of the fraction of corneoscleral collagen fibers recruited and in reserve. We developed a fiber-based microstructural constitutive model that could account for collagen fiber undulations or crimp via their tortuosity. We used experimentally-measured collagen fiber crimp tortuosity distributions in human eyes to derive region-specific nonlinear hyperelastic mechanical properties. We then built a three-dimensional axisymmetric model of the globe, assigning region-specific mechanical properties and regional anisotropy. The model was used to simulate the IOP-induced shell deformation. The model-predicted tissue stretch was then used to quantify collagen recruitment within each shell region. The calculations showed that, at low IOPs, collagen fibers in the posterior equator were recruited the fastest, such that at a physiologic IOP of 15 mmHg, over 90% of fibers were recruited, compared with only a third in the cornea and the peripapillary sclera. The differences in recruitment between regions, in turn, mean that at a physiologic IOP the posterior equator had a fiber reserve of only 10%, whereas the cornea and peripapillary sclera had two thirds. At an elevated IOP of 50 mmHg, collagen fibers in the limbus and the anterior/posterior equator were almost fully recruited, compared with 90% in the cornea and the posterior sclera, and 70% in the peripapillary sclera and the equator. That even at such an elevated IOP not all the fibers were recruited suggests that there are likely other conditions that challenge the corneoscleral tissues even more than IOP. The fraction of fibers recruited may have other potential implications. For example, fibers that are not bearing loads may be more susceptible to enzymatic digestion or remodeling. Similarly, it may be possible to control tissue stiffness through the fraction of recruited fibers without the need to add or remove collagen.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Foong, T. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hua, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amini, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sigal, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.10.519931</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Who bears the load? IOP-induced collagen fiber recruitment over the corneoscleral shell]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.12.520138v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reanalysis of mtDNA mutations of human primordial germ cells (PGCs) reveals significant contamination with NUMTs, and challenges predominantly purifying selection in late PGCs 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.12.520138v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The resilience of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) to a high mutational pressure depends, in part, on negative purifying selection in the germline. A paradigm in the field has been that such selection, at least in part, takes place in primordial germ cells (PGCs). Specifically, Floros et al. (Nature Cell Biology 20: 144-51) reported an increase in the synonymity of mtDNA mutations (a sign of purifying selection) between pooled early-stage and late-stage PGCs. We re-analyzed Floros et al. pooled PGC data and noticed that their mutational dataset was significantly contaminated with single nucleotide variants (SNVs) derived from a nuclear sequence of mtDNA origin (NUMT) located on chromosome 5. Contamination was caused by co-amplification of the NUMT sequence by cross-specific PCR primers. Importantly, when we removed NUMT-derived SNVs, the evidence of purifying selection was abolished. In addition to pooled PGCs, Floros et al. reported the analysis of single late-stage PGCs, which were amplified with different sets of PCR primers that cannot amplify the NUMT sequence. Accordingly, we found no NUMT-derived SNVs among single PGCs mutations. Interestingly, single PGC mutations show a decrease of synonymity with increased intracellular mutant fraction. This pattern is incompatible with predominantly negative selection. This suggests that germline selection of mtDNA mutations is a complex phenomenon and that the part of this process that takes place in PGCs may be predominantly positive. However counterintuitive, positive germline selection of detrimental mtDNA mutations has been reported previously and potentially may be evolutionarily advantageous.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fleischmann, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cote-LHeureux, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oreshkov, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Annis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aidlen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tilly, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.12.520138</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reanalysis of mtDNA mutations of human primordial germ cells (PGCs) reveals significant contamination with NUMTs, and challenges predominantly purifying selection in late PGCs]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.21.521479v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
7-Tesla evidence for columnar and rostral--caudal organization of the human periaqueductal grey response in the absence of threat: a working memory study 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.21.521479v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The periaqueductal gray (PAG) is a small midbrain structure that surrounds the cerebral aqueduct, regulates brain-body communication, and is often studied for its role in "fight-or-flight" and "freezing" responses to threat. We used ultra-high field 7-Tesla fMRI to resolve the PAG in humans and distinguish it from the cerebral aqueduct, examining its in vivo function in humans during a working memory task (N = 87). Relative to baseline fixation, both mild and moderate task-elicited cognitive demands elicited bilateral BOLD increases in ventrolateral PAG (vlPAG), a region previously observed to show increased activity during anticipated painful threat in both non-human and human animals. The present task posed only the most minimal (if any) "threat". The mild-demand condition involved a task easier than remembering a phone number, elicited a heart rate decrease relative to baseline, yet nonetheless elicited a bilateral vlPAG response. Across PAG voxels, BOLD signal intensity correlated with changes in physiological reactivity (relative to baseline) and showed some evidence of spatial organization along the rostral-caudal axis. These findings suggest that the PAG may have a broader role in coordinating brain--body communication during a minimally to moderately demanding task, even in the absence of threat.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fischbach, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satpute, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quigley, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kragel, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bianciardi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wager, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feldman Barrett, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Theriault, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.21.521479</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[7-Tesla evidence for columnar and rostral--caudal organization of the human periaqueductal grey response in the absence of threat: a working memory study]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.22.521574v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Directed Biosynthesis of Mitragynine Stereoisomers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.22.521574v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mitragyna speciosa ("Kratom") is used as a natural remedy for pain and management of opioid dependence. The pharmacological properties of Kratom have been linked to a complex mixture of monoterpene indole alkaloids, most notably mitragynine. Here, we report the central biosynthetic steps responsible for the scaffold formation of mitragynine and related corynanthe-type alkaloids. We illuminate the mechanistic basis by which the key stereogenic centre of this scaffold is formed. These discoveries were leveraged for the enzymatic production of mitragynine, the C-20 epimer speciogynine, and a series of fluorinated analogues.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schotte, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grzech, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laforest, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leon, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mottinelli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nadakuduti, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCurdy, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Connor, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.22.521574</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Directed Biosynthesis of Mitragynine Stereoisomers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.28.522150v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
FunGeneTyper: An Expandable Deep Learning-based Framework for Ultra-accurate Classification and Discovery of Functional Protein-Coding Genes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.28.522150v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
High-throughput DNA sequencing technologies open the gate to tremendous (meta)genomic data from yet-to-be-explored microbial dark matter. However, accurately assigning protein functions to new gene sequences remains challenging. To this end, we developed FunGeneTyper, an expandable deep learning-based framework with models, structured databases and tools for ultra-accurate (>0.99) and fine-grained classification and discovery of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and virulence factor or toxin genes. Specifically, this new framework achieves superior performance in discovering new ARGs from human gut (accuracy: 0.8512; and F1-score: 0.6948), wastewater (0.7273; 0.6072), and soil (0.8269; 0.5445) samples, beating the state-of-the-art bioinformatics tools and protein sequence-based (F1-score: 0.0556-0.5065) and domain-based (F1-score: 0.2630-0.5224) alignment approaches. We empowered the generalized application of the framework by implementing a lightweight, privacy-preserving and plug-and-play neural network module shareable among global developers and users. The FunGeneTyper* is released to promote the monitoring of key functional genes and discovery of precious enzymatic resources from diverse microbiomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ju, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.28.522150</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[FunGeneTyper: An Expandable Deep Learning-based Framework for Ultra-accurate Classification and Discovery of Functional Protein-Coding Genes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.29.522243v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Distinct spatial patterns of neural and physiology-related activity in the human periaqueductal grey during anticipatory social stress. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.29.522243v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Periaqueductal gray (PAG) columns mediate affective experience, physiological regulation, and survival-related behavior; yet, only 7T imaging can resolve these small structures in humans. In a social stress task, participants prepared a speech, and we observed (a) bilateral ventrolateral PAG activity, relative to baseline, and (b) distinct spatial patterns of correlation between PAG activity and physiological response (i.e., cardiac interbeat interval, reparation rate, and tonic electrodermal activity).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Theriault, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fischbach, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kragel, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wager, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bianciardi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quigley, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrett, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satpute, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.29.522243</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Distinct spatial patterns of neural and physiology-related activity in the human periaqueductal grey during anticipatory social stress.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.30.522307v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Interplay between acetylation and ubiquitination of imitation switch chromatin remodeler Isw1 confers multidrug resistance in Cryptococcus neoformans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.30.522307v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cryptococcus neoformans poses a threat to human health, but anticryptococcal therapy is hampered by the emergence of drug resistance, whose underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Herein, we discovered that Isw1, an imitation switch chromatin remodeling ATPase, functions as a master modulator of genes responsible for multidrug resistance in C. neoformans. Cells with the disrupted ISW1 gene exhibited profound resistance to multiple antifungal drugs. Mass spectrometry analysis revealed that Isw1 is both acetylated and ubiquitinated, suggesting that an interplay between these two modification events exists to govern Isw1 function. Mutagenesis studies of acetylation and ubiquitination sites revealed that the acetylation status of Isw1K97 coordinates with its ubiquitination processes at Isw1K113 and Isw1K441 through modulating the interaction between Isw1 and Cdc4, an E3 ligase. Additionally, clinical isolates of C. neoformans overexpressing the degradation-resistant ISW1K97Q allele showed impaired drug-resistant phenotypes. Collectively, our studies revealed a sophisticated acetylation-Isw1-ubiquitination regulation axis that controls multidrug resistance in C. neoformans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Meng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suo, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, T.-B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-12-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.12.30.522307</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Interplay between acetylation and ubiquitination of imitation switch chromatin remodeler Isw1 confers multidrug resistance in Cryptococcus neoformans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-12-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.01.522417v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Auditory and Reward Connectivity in Young and Older Adults During Music Listening and Rest 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.01.522417v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The intrinsic organization of functional brain networks is known to change with age, and is affected by perceptual input and task conditions. Here, we compare functional activity and connectivity during music listening and rest between younger (N=24) and older (N=24) adults, using whole brain regression, seed-based connectivity, and ROI-ROI connectivity analyses. As expected, activity and connectivity of auditory and reward networks scaled with liking during music listening in both groups. Younger adults show higher within-network connectivity of auditory and reward regions as compared to older adults, both at rest and during music listening, but this age-related difference at rest was reduced during music listening, especially in individuals who self-report high musical reward. Furthermore, younger adults showed higher functional connectivity between auditory network and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) that was specific to music listening, whereas older adults showed a more globally diffuse pattern of connectivity, including higher connectivity between auditory regions and bilateral lingual and inferior frontal gyri. Finally, connectivity between auditory and reward regions was higher when listening to music selected by the participant. These results highlight the roles of aging and reward sensitivity on auditory and reward networks. Results may inform the design of music- based interventions for older adults, and improve our understanding of functional network dynamics of the brain at rest and during a cognitively engaging task.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Belden, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quinci, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geddes, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hanser, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donovan, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.01.522417</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Auditory and Reward Connectivity in Young and Older Adults During Music Listening and Rest]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.09.523330v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Periplasmic stress contributes to a tradeoff between protein secretion and cell growth in E. Coli Nissile 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.09.523330v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Maximizing protein secretion is an important target in the design of engineered living systems. In this paper, we characterize a tradeoff between cell growth and per cell protein secretion in the curli biofilm secretion system of E Coli Nissile 1917. Initial characterization using 24-hour continuous growth and protein production monitoring confirms decreased growth rates at high induction leading to a local maximum in total protein production at intermediate induction. Propidium iodide staining at the endpoint indicates that cellular death is a dominant cause of growth reduction. Assaying variants with combinatorial constructs of inner and outer membrane secretion tags, we find that diminished growth at high production is specific to secretory variants associated with accumulation of protein containing the outer membrane transport tag in the periplasmic space. RNA sequencing experiments indicate upregulation of known periplasmic stress response genes in the highly secreting variant, further implicating periplasmic stress in the growth-secretion tradeoff. Overall, these results motivate additional strategies for optimizing total protein production and longevity of secretory engineered living systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Emani, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kan, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Storms, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonanno, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Law, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ray, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.09.523330</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Periplasmic stress contributes to a tradeoff between protein secretion and cell growth in E. Coli Nissile]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.10.523477v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Hypoxia-inducing cryogels uncover key cancer-immune cell interactions in an oxygen-deficient tumor microenvironment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.10.523477v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hypoxia, an important feature of solid tumors, is a major factor shaping the immune landscape, and several cancer models have been developed to emulate hypoxic tumors. However, to date, they still have several limitations, such as the lack of reproducibility, inadequate biophysical cues, limited immune cell infiltration, and poor oxygen (O2) control, leading to non-pathophysiological tumor responses. As a result, it is essential to develop new and improved cancer models that mimic key features of the tumor extracellular matrix and recreate tumor-associated hypoxia while allowing cell infiltration and cancer-immune cell interactions. Herein, hypoxia-inducing cryogels (HICs) have been engineered using hyaluronic acid (HA) as macroporous scaffolds to fabricate three-dimensional microtissues and model a hypoxic tumor microenvironment. Specifically, tumor cell-laden HICs have been designed to deplete O2 locally and induce long-standing hypoxia. This state of low oxygen tension, leading to HIF-1 stabilization in tumor cells, resulted in changes in hypoxia-responsive gene expression and phenotype, a metabolic adaptation to anaerobic glycolysis, and chemotherapy resistance. Additionally, HIC-supported tumor models induced dendritic cell (DC) inhibition, revealing a phenotypic change in plasmacytoid B220+ DC (pDC) subset and an impaired conventional B220- DC (cDC) response in hypoxia. Lastly, our HIC-based melanoma model induced CD8+ T cell inhibition, a condition associated with the downregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, increased expression of immunomodulatory factors, and decreased degranulation and cytotoxic capacity of T cells. Overall, these data suggest that HICs can be used as a tool to model solid-like tumor microenvironments and identify a phenotypic transition from cDC to pDC in hypoxia and the key contribution of HA in retaining cDC phenotype and inducing their hypoxia-mediated immunosuppression. This technology has great potential to deepen our understanding of the complex relationships between cancer and immune cells in low O2 conditions and may pave the way for developing more effective therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Colombani, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rogers, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhatt, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sinoimeri, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerbereux, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamrangsekachaee, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bencherif, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.10.523477</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hypoxia-inducing cryogels uncover key cancer-immune cell interactions in an oxygen-deficient tumor microenvironment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.12.523790v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Scalable Nanopore sequencing of human genomes provides a comprehensive view of haplotype-resolved variation and methylation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.12.523790v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Long-read sequencing technologies substantially overcome the limitations of short-reads but to date have not been considered as feasible replacement at scale due to a combination of being too expensive, not scalable enough, or too error-prone. Here, we develop an efficient and scalable wet lab and computational protocol for Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long-read sequencing that seeks to provide a genuine alternative to short-reads for large-scale genomics projects. We applied our protocol to cell lines and brain tissue samples as part of a pilot project for the NIH Center for Alzheimers and Related Dementias (CARD). Using a single PromethION flow cell, we can detect SNPs with F1-score better than Illumina short-read sequencing. Small indel calling remains difficult within homopolymers and tandem repeats, but is comparable to Illumina calls elsewhere. Further, we can discover structural variants with F1-score comparable to state-of-the-art methods involving Pacific Biosciences HiFi sequencing and trio information (but at a lower cost and greater throughput). Using ONT-based phasing, we can then combine and phase small and structural variants at megabase scales. Our protocol also produces highly accurate, haplotype-specific methylation calls. Overall, this makes large-scale long-read sequencing projects feasible; the protocol is currently being used to sequence thousands of brain-based genomes as a part of the NIH CARD initiative. We provide the protocol and software as open-source integrated pipelines for generating phased variant calls and assemblies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kolmogorov, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Billingsley, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mastoras, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meredith, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monlong, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lorig-Roach, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez Jerez, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malik, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dewan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Genner, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daida, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Behera, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shafin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pesout, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prabakaran, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carnevali, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>North American Brain Expression Consortium (NABEC),</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rhie, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scholz, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Traynor, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miga, K. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Timp, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillippy, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chaisson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sedlazeck, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blauwendraat, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paten, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.12.523790</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Scalable Nanopore sequencing of human genomes provides a comprehensive view of haplotype-resolved variation and methylation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.12.523791v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Real-time feedback reduces participant motion during task-based fMRI 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.12.523791v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The potential negative impact of head movement during fMRI has long been appreciated. Although a variety of prospective and retrospective approaches have been developed to help mitigate these effects, reducing head movement in the first place remains the most appealing strategy for optimizing data quality. Real-time interventions, in which participants are provided feedback regarding their scan-to-scan motion, have recently shown promise in reducing motion during resting state fMRI. However, whether feedback might similarly reduce motion during task-based fMRI is an open question. In particular, it is unclear whether participants can effectively monitor motion feedback while attending to task-related demands. Here we assessed whether a combination of real-time and between-run feedback could reduce head motion during task-based fMRI. During an auditory word repetition task, 78 adult participants (aged 19-81) were pseudorandomly assigned to receive feedback or not. Feedback was provided FIRMM software that used real-time calculation of realignment parameters to estimate participant motion. We quantified movement using framewise displacement (FD). We found that motion feedback resulted in a statistically significant reduction in participant head motion, with a small-to-moderate effect size (reducing average FD from 0.347 to 0.282). Reductions were most apparent in high-motion events. We conclude that under some circumstances real-time feedback may reduce head motion during task-based fMRI, although its effectiveness may depend on the specific participant population and task demands of a given study.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rogers, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McConkey, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McLaughlin, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peelle, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.12.523791</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Real-time feedback reduces participant motion during task-based fMRI]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.12.523850v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Oxycodone self-administration and reinstatement in male and female squirrel monkeys: Effects of alternative reinforcer availability 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.12.523850v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The use of non-drug alternative reinforcers has long been utilized as a component of therapeutic interventions for the management of substance use disorder; however, the conditions under which alternative reinforcers are most effective are not well characterized. This study evaluated the impact of varying the magnitude of an alternative reinforcer on oxycodone self-administration and reinstatement in male and female squirrel monkeys. Subjects (n=4/sex) were trained under concurrent second-order schedules of reinforcement for intravenous oxycodone (0.001-0.1mg/kg/inj) on one lever, and sweetened condensed milk (5, 10, 20, 30% in water) on another. Oxycodone-primed reinstatement was evaluated by administering 0.32mg/kg oxycodone prior to sessions in which saline was available on the drug-paired lever. During oxycodone self-administration sessions, milk availability decreased oxycodone self-administration and preference in a concentration-dependent manner; low milk concentrations were more effective at decreasing oxycodones reinforcing potency in males. During reinstatement tests, milk significantly attenuated oxycodone-primed responding in both males and females; low milk concentrations were more effective at decreasing the priming effects of oxycodone in females. That alternative reinforcers differentially impacted self-administration and reinstatement in a sex-dependent manner suggests that treatment strategies that utilize alternative reinforcers may be more effective in males or females depending on when they are implemented.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moura, F. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Booth, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kohut, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.12.523850</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Oxycodone self-administration and reinstatement in male and female squirrel monkeys: Effects of alternative reinforcer availability]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.13.523900v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Oxygen-induced chromophore degradation in the photoswitchable red fluorescent protein rsCherry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.13.523900v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Reversibly switchable monomeric Cherry (rsCherry) is a photoswitchable variant of the red fluorescent protein mCherry. We report that this protein gradually and irreversibly loses its red fluorescence in the dark over a period of months at 4{degrees}C and a few days at 37{degrees}C. We also find that its ancestor, mCherry, undergoes a similar fluorescence loss but at a slower rate. X-ray crystallography and mass spectrometry reveal that this is caused by the cleavage of the p-hydroxyphenyl ring from the chromophore and the formation of two novel types of cyclic structures at the remaining chromophore moiety. Overall, our work sheds light on a new process occurring within fluorescent proteins, further adding to the chemical diversity and versatility of these molecules.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bui, T. Y. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Zitter, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moeyaert, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pecqueur, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srinivasu, B. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Economou, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fontecave, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Meervelt, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dedecker, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pedre, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.13.523900</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Oxygen-induced chromophore degradation in the photoswitchable red fluorescent protein rsCherry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.01.526662v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Role of Complementarity-Determining Regions 1 and 3 in Pathologic Amyloid Formation by Human Immunoglobulin κ1 Light Chains 
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</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.01.526662v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Immunoglobulin light chain (LC) amyloidosis is a life-threatening disease whose understanding and treatment is complicated by vast numbers of patient-specific mutations. To address molecular origins of the disease, we explored 14 patient-derived and engineered proteins related to {kappa}1-family germline genes IGKVLD-33*01 and IGKVLD-39*01. Hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry analysis of local conformational dynamics in full-length recombinant LCs and their fragments was integrated with studies of thermal stability, proteolytic susceptibility, amyloid formation, and amyloidogenic sequence propensities using spectroscopic, electron microscopic and bioinformatics tools. The results were mapped on the atomic structures of native and fibrillary proteins. Proteins from two {kappa}1 subfamilies showed unexpected differences. Compared to their germline counterparts, amyloid LC related to IGKVLD-33*01 was less stable and formed amyloid faster, whereas amyloid LC related to IGKVLD-39*01 had similar stability and formed amyloid slower. These and other differences suggest different major factors influencing amyloid formation. In 33*01-related amyloid LC, these factors involved mutation-induced destabilization of the native structure and probable stabilization of amyloid. The atypical behaviour of 39*01-related amyloid LC tracked back to increased dynamics/exposure of amyloidogenic segments in {beta}CV and {beta}EV that could initiate aggregation, combined with decreased dynamics/exposure near the Cys23-Cys88 disulfide whose rearrangement is rate-limiting to amyloidogenesis. The results suggest distinct amyloidogenic pathways for closely related LCs and point to the antigen-binding, complementarity-determining regions CDR1 and CDR3, which are linked via the conserved internal disulfide, as key factors in amyloid formation by various LCs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Klimtchuk, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peterle, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bullitt, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connors, L. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gursky, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.01.526662</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Role of Complementarity-Determining Regions 1 and 3 in Pathologic Amyloid Formation by Human Immunoglobulin κ1 Light Chains]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.02.526809v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Data-Driven Optimization of DIA Mass-Spectrometry by DO-MS 
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</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.02.526809v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mass spectrometry (MS) enables specific and accurate quantification of proteins with ever increasing throughput and sensitivity. Maximizing this potential of MS requires optimizing data acquisition parameters and performing efficient quality control for large datasets. To facilitate these objectives for data independent acquisition (DIA), we developed a second version of our framework for data-driven optimization of mass spectrometry methods (DO-MS). The DO-MS app v2.0 (do-ms.slavovlab.net) allows to optimize and evaluate results from both label free and multiplexed DIA (plexDIA) and supports optimizations particularly relevant for single-cell proteomics. We demonstrate multiple use cases, including optimization of duty cycle methods, peptide separation, number of survey scans per duty cycle, and quality control of single-cell plexDIA data. DO-MS allows for interactive data display and generation of extensive reports, including publication quality figures, that can be easily shared. The source code is available at: github.com/SlavovLab/DO-MS.

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=68 SRC="FIGDIR/small/526809v3_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wallmann, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.02.526809</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Data-Driven Optimization of DIA Mass-Spectrometry by DO-MS]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.03.526930v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Low dimensionality of phenotypic space as an emergent property of coordinated teams in biological regulatory networks 
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</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.03.526930v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Biological networks driving cell-fate decisions involve complex interactions, but they often give rise to only a few phenotypes, thus exhibiting low-dimensional dynamics. The network design principles that govern such cell-fate canalization remain unclear. Here, we investigate networks across diverse biological contexts- Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition, Small Cell Lung Cancer, and Gonadal cell-fate determination - to reveal that the presence of two mutually antagonistic, well-coordinated teams of nodes leads to low-dimensional phenotypic space such that the first principal component (PC1) axis can capture most of the variance. Further analysis of artificial team-based networks and random counterparts of biological networks reveals that the principal component decomposition is determined by the team strength within these networks, demonstrating how the underlying network structure governs PC1 variance. The presence of low dimensionality in corresponding transcriptomic data confirms the applicability of our observations. We propose that team-based topology in biological networks are critical for generating a cell-fate canalization landscape.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hari, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harlapur, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saxena, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Girish, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.03.526930</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Low dimensionality of phenotypic space as an emergent property of coordinated teams in biological regulatory networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.03.526998v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Assembly and operation of a cooling stage to immobilize C. elegans on their culture plates 
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</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.03.526998v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
High-resolution in vivo microscopy approaches can reveal subtle information and fine details inside the model animal Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) but requires strong animal immobilization. Unfortunately, most current immobilization techniques require substantial manual effort, rendering high-resolution imaging low-throughput. We greatly simplify the C. elegans immobilization procedure by using a cooling approach that can easily immobilize entire populations of C. elegans directly on their cultivation plates. The cooling stage can establish and maintain a wide range of temperatures on the cultivation plate and ensures even temperature distribution across the agarose surface. In this article, we document the whole process of building the cooling stage from scratch. We envision that a typical researcher can build an operational cooling stage in their lab following our protocol without difficulty. We show how to utilize the cooling stage under three protocols, which have advantages for different experiments. We also show an example cooling profile of the stage as it approaches its final temperature and include some helpful tips in using cooling immobilization.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grooms, N. W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.03.526998</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Assembly and operation of a cooling stage to immobilize C. elegans on their culture plates]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.10.528022v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
How useful is genomic data for predicting maladaptation to future climate? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.10.528022v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Methods using genomic information to forecast potential population maladaptation to climate change are becoming increasingly common, yet the lack of model validation poses serious hurdles toward their incorporation into management and policy. Here, we compare the validation of maladaptation estimates derived from two methods - Gradient Forests (GFoffset) and the Risk Of Non-Adaptedness (RONA) - using exome capture pool-seq data from 35 to 39 populations across three conifer taxa: two Douglas-fir varieties and jack pine. We evaluate sensitivity of these algorithms to the source of input loci (markers selected from genotype-environment associations [GEA] or those selected at random). We validate these methods against two-year and 52-year growth and mortality measured in independent transplant experiments. Overall, we find that both methods often better predict transplant performance than climatic or geographic distances. We also find that GFoffset and RONA models are surprisingly not improved using GEA candidates. Even with promising validation results, variation in model projections to future climates makes it difficult to identify the most maladapted populations using either method. Our work advances understanding of the sensitivity and applicability of these approaches, and we discuss recommendations for their future use.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lind, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Candido-Ribeiro, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Obreht Vidakovic, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Booker, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitlock, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeaman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isabel, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aitken, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.10.528022</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[How useful is genomic data for predicting maladaptation to future climate?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.20.529280v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cardinal v3 - a versatile open source software for mass spectrometry imaging analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.20.529280v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cardinal v3 is an open source software for reproducible analysis of mass spectrometry imaging experiments. A major update from its previous versions, Cardinal v3 supports most mass spectrometry imaging workflows. Its analytical capabilities include advanced data processing such as mass re-calibration, advanced statistical analyses such as single-ion segmentation and rough annotation-based classification, and memory-efficient analyses of large-scale multi-tissue experiments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bemis, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foell, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lakkimsetty, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vitek, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.20.529280</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cardinal v3 - a versatile open source software for mass spectrometry imaging analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.21.529152v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Phased nanopore assembly with Shasta and modular graph phasing with GFAse 
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</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.21.529152v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
As a step towards simplifying and reducing the cost of haplotype resolved de novo assembly, we describe new methods for accurately phasing nanopore data with the Shasta genome assembler and a modular tool for extending phasing to the chromosome scale called GFAse. We test using new variants of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) PromethION sequencing, including those using proximity ligation and show that newer, higher accuracy ONT reads substantially improve assembly quality.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lorig-Roach, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meredith, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monlong, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olsen, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNulty, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Porubsky, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Montague, T. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lucas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Condon, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eizenga, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juul, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKenzie, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simmonds, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koren, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eichler, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Axel, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carnevali, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miga, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paten, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.21.529152</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Phased nanopore assembly with Shasta and modular graph phasing with GFAse]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.21.529475v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Machined silicon traps for capturing novel bacterial communities and strains in-situ 
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</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.21.529475v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We tested the feasibility of a novel machined silicon nanopore enrichment device to recover individual microbial taxa from anaerobic sediments. Unlike other environmental isolation devices that have multiple entry points for bacteria or require the sample to be manually placed inside of a culturing chamber, our silicon device contains 24 precisely sized and spaced nanopores, each of which is connected to one culturing well, thereby providing only one entry point for bacteria. The culturing wells allow nutrient transport, so the bacteria that enter continue to experience their natural chemical environment, allowing collection of microbes without manipulating the environment. The device was deployed in marsh sediment and subsequently returned to the laboratory for bacterial culturing and analysis. 16S rRNA marker gene and metagenomic sequencing was used to quantify the number of different microbial taxa cultured from the device. The 16S rRNA sequencing results indicate that each well of the device contained between 1 and 62 different organisms from several taxonomic groups, including likely novel taxa. We also sequenced the metagenome from 8 of the 24 wells, enabling the reconstruction of 56 metagenomic assembled genomes (MAGs), and 44 of these MAGs represented non-redundant genome reconstructions. These results demonstrate that our novel silicon nanofluidic device can be used for isolating and culturing consortia containing a small number of microbial taxa from anaerobic sediments, which can be very valuable in determining their physiological potential.

ImportanceThere are very few methods that can remove a few bacterial cells from a complex environment and keep the cells alive so that they can propagate sufficiently to be analyzed in a laboratory. Such methods are important to develop because the physiological functions of individual species of bacteria are often unknown, cannot be determined directly in the complex sample, and many bacterial cells cannot be grown outside of their natural environment. A novel bacterial isolation device has been made tested in a salt marsh. The results show that the device successfully isolated small groups of bacterial species from the incredibly diverse surroundings. The communities of bacteria were easily removed from the device in the laboratory and analyzed.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Romero Santiveri, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vineis, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martins, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calaza, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaspar, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowen, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goluch, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.21.529475</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Machined silicon traps for capturing novel bacterial communities and strains in-situ]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.24.529924v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Can deep learning predict human intelligence from structural brain MRI? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.24.529924v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Can brain structure predict human intelligence? T1-weighted structural brain magnetic resonance images (sMRI) have been correlated with intelligence. Nevertheless, population-level association does not fully account for individual variability in intelligence. To address this, individual prediction studies emerge recently. However, they are mostly on predicting fluid intelligence (the ability to solve new problems). Studies are lacking to predict crystallized intelligence (the ability to accumulate knowledge) or general intelligence (fluid and crystallized intelligence combined). This study tests whether deep learning of sMRI can predict an individual subjects verbal, comprehensive, and full-scale intelligence quotients (VIQ, PIQ, FSIQ), which reflect both fluid and crystallized intelligence. We performed a comprehensive set of 432 experiments, using different input images, six deep learning models, and two outcome settings, on 850 autistic and healthy subjects 6-64 years of age. Results show promise with statistical significance, and also open up questions inviting further future studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hussain, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LaMay, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grant, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.24.529924</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Can deep learning predict human intelligence from structural brain MRI?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.25.529586v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
AIM (Angular Indication Measurement) paradigm: Adaptive, self-administered, and generalizable vision assessment used to measure visual acuity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.25.529586v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
This proof-of-concept study introduces Angular Indication Measurement and applies it to VA (AIM-VA). First, we compared the ability of AIM-VA and ETDRS to detect defocus and astigmatic blur in 22 normally-sighted adults. Spherical and cylindrical lenses ({+/-}0.00D, +0.25D, +0.50D, +0.75D, +1.00D, +2.00D and +0.50D, +1.00D, +2.00D each at 0{degrees}, 90{degrees}, 135{degrees}, respectively) in the dominant eye induced blur. Second, we compared repeatability over two tests of AIM-VA and ETDRS. A 2-way-ANOVA showed a main effect for defocus-blur and test with no interaction. A 3-way-ANOVA for the astigmatism experiment revealed main effects for test type, blur, and direction and with no interactions. Planned multiple comparisons showed AIM had greater astigmatic-induced VA loss than ETDRS. Bland-Altman plots showed small bias and no systematic learning effect for either test type and improved repeatability with >2 adaptive steps for AIM-VA. AIM-VAs ability to detect defocus was comparable with that of an ETDRS letter chart and showed greater sensitivity to astigmatic blur, and AIM-VAs repeatability is comparable with ETDRS when using 2 or more adaptive steps. AIMs self-administered orientation judgment approach is generalizable to interrogate other visual functions, e.g., contrast, color, motion, stereo-vision.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Skerswetat, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aycardi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.25.529586</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[AIM (Angular Indication Measurement) paradigm: Adaptive, self-administered, and generalizable vision assessment used to measure visual acuity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.27.530235v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Continuous, long-term crawling behavior characterized by a robotic transport system 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.27.530235v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Detailed descriptions of behavior provide critical insight into the structure and function of nervous systems. In Drosophila larvae and many other systems, short behavioral experiments have been successful in characterizing rapid responses to a range of stimuli at the population level. However, the lack of long-term continuous observation makes it difficult to dissect comprehensive behavioral dynamics of individual animals and how behavior (and therefore the nervous system) develops over time. To allow for long-term continuous observations in individual fly larvae, we have engineered a robotic instrument that automatically tracks and transports larvae throughout an arena. The flexibility and reliability of its design enables controlled stimulus delivery and continuous measurement over developmental time scales, yielding an unprecedented level of detailed locomotion data. We utilize the new systems capabilities to perform continuous observation of exploratory behavior over a duration of six hours with and without a thermal gradient present, and in a single larva for over 30 hours. Long-term free-roaming behavior and analogous short-term experiments show similar dynamics that take place at the beginning of each experiment. Finally, characterization of larval thermotaxis in individuals reveals a bimodal distribution in navigation efficiency, identifying distinct phenotypes that are obfuscated when only analyzing population averages.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dancausse, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faderin, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaviria, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shomar, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zucker, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klein, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.27.530235</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Continuous, long-term crawling behavior characterized by a robotic transport system]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.27.530254v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structure-based discovery of cannabinoid-1 receptor agonists with reduced side effects 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.27.530254v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Large library docking can reveal unexpected chemotypes that complement the structures of biological targets. Seeking new agonists for the cannabinoid-1 receptor (CB1R), we docked 74 million tangible molecules, prioritizing 46 high ranking ones for de novo synthesis and testing. Nine were active by radioligand competition, a 20% hit-rate. Structure-based optimization of one of the most potent of these (Ki = 0.7 {micro}M) led to  4042, a 1.9 nM ligand and a full CB1R agonist. A cryo-EM structure of the purified enantiomer of  4042 ( 1350) in complex with CB1R-Gi1 confirmed its docked pose. The new agonist was strongly analgesic, with generally a 5-10-fold therapeutic window over sedation and catalepsy and no observable conditioned place preference. These findings suggest that new cannabinoid chemotypes may disentangle characteristic cannabinoid side-effects from their analgesia, supporting the further development of cannabinoids as pain therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tummino, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iliopoulos-Tsoutsouvas, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Braz, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Brien, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stein, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Craik, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tran, N. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ganapathy, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shiimura, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tong, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ho, T. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radchenko, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moroz, Y. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosado, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhardwaj, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benitez, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kandasamy, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Normand, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Semache, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sabbagh, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Glenn, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Irwin, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makriyannis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basbaum, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoichet, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.27.530254</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structure-based discovery of cannabinoid-1 receptor agonists with reduced side effects]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.03.529094v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Fine-tuning GPCR-mediated neuromodulation by biasing signaling through different G-protein subunits 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.03.529094v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
GPCRs mediate neuromodulation through activation of heterotrimeric G-proteins (G{beta}{gamma}). Classical models depict that G-protein activation leads to a one-to-one formation of G-GTP and G{beta}{gamma} species. Each of these species propagates signaling by independently acting on effectors, but the mechanisms by which response fidelity is ensured by coordinating G and G{beta}{gamma} responses remain unknown. Here, we reveal a paradigm of G-protein regulation whereby the neuronal protein GINIP biases inhibitory GPCR responses to favor G{beta}{gamma} over G signaling. Tight binding of GINIP to Gi-GTP precludes its association with effectors (adenylyl cyclase) and, simultaneously, with Regulator-of-G-protein-Signaling (RGS) proteins that accelerate deactivation. As a consequence, Gi-GTP signaling is dampened whereas G{beta}{gamma} signaling is enhanced. We show that this mechanism is essential to prevent imbalances of neurotransmission that underlie increased seizure susceptibility in vivo. Our findings reveal an additional layer of regulation within a quintessential mechanism of signal transduction that sets the tone of neurotransmission.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Park, J.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luebbers, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dao, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Semeano, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Papakonstantinou, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Broselid, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yano, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martemyanov, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia-Marcos, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.03.529094</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Fine-tuning GPCR-mediated neuromodulation by biasing signaling through different G-protein subunits]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.17.533205v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
AspFlex: molecular tools to study gene expression and regulation in Acinetobacter baumannii 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.17.533205v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acinetobacter baumannii is a gram negative nosocomial opportunistic pathogen frequently found in hospital settings, causing high incidence of in-hospital infections. It belongs to the ESKAPE group of pathogens (the "A" stands for A. baumannii) that is known to easily develop antibiotic resistances. It is crucial to create a molecular toolkit to investigate its basic biology, such as gene regulation. Despite A. baumannii being a threat for almost two decades, an efficient and high-throughput plasmid system that can replicate in A. baumannii has not yet been developed. This study adapts an existing toolkit for Escherichia coli to meet A. baumanniis unique requirements and expands it by constructing a mobile CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) system that can produce gene knockdowns in A. baumannii.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Brychcy, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kokodynski, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lloyd, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godoy, V. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.17.533205</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[AspFlex: molecular tools to study gene expression and regulation in Acinetobacter baumannii]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.21.533695v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Personal interests amplify engagement of language regions in the brains of children with and without autism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.21.533695v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cognition is shaped by individual experiences and interests. However, to study cognition in the brain, researchers typically use generic stimuli that are the same across all individuals. Language, in particular, is animated and motivated by several highly personal factors that are typically not accounted for in neuroimaging study designs, such as "interest" in a topic. Due to its inherently personal and idiosyncratic nature, it is unknown how interest in a topic modulates language processing in the brain. We conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 20 children (ages 6.98-12.01 years, mean(SD)=9.35(1.52), 5 female/15 male) as they listened to personalized narratives about a topic of specific interest, as well as to non-personalized generic narratives. We found that personalized narratives about a topic of interest increased activation in canonical language areas, as well as in reward and self-reference regions. Strikingly, we found that activation patterns elicited by topics of personal interest were more consistent across children, despite their idiosyncratic nature, than activation patterns elicited by narratives about an identical generic topic. These results reinforce the critical role that personal interests play in language processing in the human brain, and demonstrate the feasibility of using a personalized neuroimaging approach to study the effects of individually-varying factors such as interest in the brain.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>D'Mello, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olson, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, K. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nishith, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frosch, I. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabrieli, J. D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.21.533695</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Personal interests amplify engagement of language regions in the brains of children with and without autism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.22.533789v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modeling the role of immune cell conversion in the tumor-immune microenviroment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.22.533789v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tumors develop in a complex physical, biochemical, and cellular milieu, referred to as the tumor microenvironment. Of special interest is the set of immune cells that reciprocally interact with the tumor, the tumor-immune microenvironment (TIME). The diversity of cell types and cell-cell interactions in the TIME has led researchers to apply concepts from ecology to describe the dynamics. However, while tumor cells are known to induce immune cells to switch from anti-tumor to pro-tumor phenotypes, this type of ecological interaction has been largely overlooked. To address this gap in cancer modeling, we develop a minimal, ecological model of the TIME with immune cell conversion, to highlight this important interaction and explore its consequences. A key finding is that immune conversion increases the range of parameters supporting a co-existence phase in which the immune system and the tumor reach a stalemate. Our results suggest that further investigation of the consequences of immune cell conversion, using detailed, data-driven models, will be critical for greater understanding of TIME dynamics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moffett, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.22.533789</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modeling the role of immune cell conversion in the tumor-immune microenviroment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.24.534123v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Age-related variability in network engagement during music listening 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.24.534123v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Listening to music is an enjoyable behaviour that engages multiple networks of brain regions. As such, the act of music listening may offer a way to interrogate network activity, and to examine the reconfigurations of brain networks that have been observed in healthy aging. The present study is an exploratory examination of brain network dynamics during music listening in healthy older and younger adults. Network measures were extracted and analyzed together with behavioural data using a combination of hidden Markov modelling and partial least squares. We found age- and preference-related differences in fMRI data collected during music listening in healthy younger and older adults. Both age groups showed higher occupancy (the proportion of time a network was active) in a temporal-mesolimbic network while listening to self-selected music. Activity in this network was strongly positively correlated with liking and familiarity ratings in younger adults, but less so in older adults. Additionally, older adults showed a higher degree of correlation between liking and familiarity ratings consistent with past behavioural work on age-related dedifferentiation. We conclude that, while older adults do show network and behaviour patterns consistent with dedifferentiation, activity in the temporal-mesolimbic network is relatively robust to dedifferentiation. These findings may help explain how music listening remains meaningful and rewarding in old age.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Faber, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Belden, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McIntosh, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.24.534123</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Age-related variability in network engagement during music listening]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.29.534782v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Turing pattern prediction in three-dimensional domains: the role of initial conditions and growth 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.29.534782v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Reaction-diffusion systems have been widely used to model pattern formation in biological systems. However, the emergence of Turing patterns in three-dimensional (3D) domains remains relatively unexplored. A few studies on this topic have shown that extending pattern formation from 2D to 3D is not straightforward. Linear stability analysis, which is commonly used to associate admissible wave modes with predicted patterns in 1D and 2D, has yet to be applied in 3D. We have used this approach, together with finite element modelling of a Turing system with Schnakenberg kinetics, to investigate the effects of initial conditions and growing domains on the competition between admissible modes in 3D Turing pattern emergence. Our results reveal that non-random initial conditions on the activator play a stronger role than those of the inhibitor. We also observe a path dependency of the evolving pattern within a growing domain. Our findings shed new light on the mechanisms ensuring reliable pattern formation in 3D domains and have important implications for the development of more robust models of morphogen patterning in developmental processes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ben Tahar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munoz, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shefelbine, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Comellas, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.29.534782</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Turing pattern prediction in three-dimensional domains: the role of initial conditions and growth]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.29.534805v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Transposon-sequencing across multiple Mycobacterium abscessus isolates reveals significant functional genomic diversity among strains 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.29.534805v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mycobacterium abscessus (Mab) is a clinically significant pathogen and a highly genetically diverse species due to its large accessory genome. The functional consequence of this diversity remains unknown mainly because, to date, functional genomic studies in Mab have been primarily performed on reference strains. Given the growing public health threat of Mab infections, understanding the functional genomic differences among Mab clinical isolates can provide more insight into how its genetic diversity influences gene essentiality, clinically relevant phenotypes, and importantly, potential drug targets. To determine the functional genomic diversity among Mab strains, we conducted transposon-sequencing (TnSeq) on 21 genetically diverse clinical isolates, including 15 M. abscessus subsp. abscessus isolates and 6 M. abscessus subsp. massiliense isolates, cataloging all the essential and non-essential genes in each strain. Pan-genome analysis revealed a core set of 3845 genes and a large accessory genome of 11,507. We identified 259 core essential genes across the 21 clinical isolates and 425 differentially required genes, representing [~]10% of the Mab core genome. We also identified genes whose requirements were sub-species, lineage, and isolate-specific. Finally, by correlating TnSeq profiles, we identified 19 previously uncharacterized genetic networks in Mab. Altogether, we find that Mab clinical isolates are not only genetically diverse but functionally diverse as well.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Akusobi, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benghomari, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choudhery, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singhvi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hicks, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ioerger, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubin, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.29.534805</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Transposon-sequencing across multiple Mycobacterium abscessus isolates reveals significant functional genomic diversity among strains]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.02.534383v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SEQUENCE VS. STRUCTURE: DELVING DEEP INTO DATA DRIVEN PROTEIN FUNCTION PREDICTION 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.02.534383v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWPredicting protein function is a longstanding challenge that has significant scientific implications. The success of amino acid sequence-based learning methods depends on the relationship between sequence, structure, and function. However, recent advances in AlphaFold have led to highly accurate protein structure data becoming more readily available, prompting a fundamental question: given sufficient experimental and predicted structures, should we use structure-based learning methods instead of sequence-based learning methods for predicting protein function, given the intuition that a proteins structure has a closer relationship to its function than its amino acid sequence? To answer this question, we explore several key factors that affect function prediction accuracy. Firstly, we learn protein representations using state-of-the-art graph neural networks (GNNs) and compare graph construction(GC) methods at the residue and atomic levels. Secondly, we investigate whether protein structures generated by AlphaFold are as effective as experimental structures for function prediction when protein graphs are used as input. Finally, we compare the accuracy of sequence-only, structure-only, and sequence-structure fusion-based learning methods for predicting protein function. Additionally, we make several observations, provide useful tips, and share code and datasets to encourage further research and enhance reproducibility.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tian, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Su, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Du, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.02.534383</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SEQUENCE VS. STRUCTURE: DELVING DEEP INTO DATA DRIVEN PROTEIN FUNCTION PREDICTION]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.06.535889v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multicellular, IVT-derived, unmodified human transcriptome for nanopore direct RNA analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.06.535889v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Nanopore direct RNA sequencing (DRS) enables measurements of RNA modifications. Modification-free transcripts are a practical and targeted control for DRS, providing a baseline measurement for canonical nucleotides within a matched and biologically derived sequence context. However, these controls can be challenging to generate and carry nanopore-specific nuances that can impact analysis. We produced DRS datasets using modification-free transcripts from in vitro transcription (IVT) of cDNA from six immortalized human cell lines. We characterized variation across cell lines and demonstrated how these may be interpreted. These data will serve as a versatile control and resource to the community for RNA modification analysis of human transcripts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McCormick, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akeson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tavakoli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloch, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klink, I. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.06.535889</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multicellular, IVT-derived, unmodified human transcriptome for nanopore direct RNA analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.12.536625v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CB1R blockade unmasks TRPV1-mediated contextual fear generalization in female, but not male rats 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.12.536625v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Increasing evidence suggests that the neurobiological processes that govern learning and memory can be different in males and females, and here we asked specifically whether the endocannabinoid (eCB) system could modulate Pavlovian fear conditioning in a sex-dependent manner. Systemic (i.p.) injection of CB1R antagonist AM251 in adult male and female Sprague Dawley rats prior to auditory cued fear conditioning produced a female-specific increase in freezing that persisted across extinction and extinction retrieval tests but was prevented by co-administration of TRPV1R antagonist Capsazepine. Notably, AM251 also produced robust freezing in a novel context prior to auditory cue presentation the day following drug administration, but not the day of, suggesting that CB1R blockade elicited contextual fear generalization in females. To identify a potential synaptic mechanism for these sex differences, we next used liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry, Western Blot, and confocal-assisted immunofluorescence techniques to quantify anandamide (AEA), TRPV1R, and perisomatic CB1R expression, respectively, focusing on the ventral hippocampus (vHip). Fear conditioning elicited increased vHip AEA levels in females only, and in both sexes, CB1R expression around vHip efferents targeting the basolateral amygdala (BLA) was twice that at neighboring vHip neurons. Finally, quantification of the vHip-BLA projections themselves revealed that females have over twice the number of neurons in this pathway that males do. Together, our data support a model in which sexual dimorphism in vHip-BLA circuitry promotes a female-specific dependence on CB1Rs for context processing that is sensitive to TRPV1-mediated disruption when CB1Rs are blocked.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huckleberry, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calitri, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mejdell, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhutani, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laine, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nastase, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morena, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hill, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shansky, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.12.536625</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CB1R blockade unmasks TRPV1-mediated contextual fear generalization in female, but not male rats]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.14.536897v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The 'Stem' and the 'Workers' of the mtDNA population of the cell. Evidence from mutational analysis. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.04.14.536897v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Every cell in our body contains a vibrant population of mitochondria, or, more precisely, of mitochondrial DNA molecules (mtDNAs). Just like members of any population mtDNAs multiply (by replication) and  die (i.e., are removed, either by degradation or by distribution into the sister cell in mitosis). An intriguing question is whether all mitochondria in this population are equal, especially whether some are responsible primarily for reproduction and some - for empowering the various jobs of the mitochondrion, oxidative phosphorylation in the first place. Importantly, because mtDNA is highly damaged such a separation of responsibilities could help greatly reduce the conversion of DNA damage into real inheritable mutations. An unexpected twist in the resolution of this problem has been brought about by a recent high-precision analysis of mtDNA mutations (Sanchez-Contreras et al. 2023). They discovered that certain transversion mutations, unlike more common transitions, are not accumulating with age in mice. We argue that this observation requires the existence of a permanent replicating subpopulation/lineage of mtDNA molecules, which are protected from DNA damage, a.k.a. the  stem mtDNA. This also implies the existence of its antipode i.e., the  worker mtDNA, which empowers OSPHOS, sustains damage and rarely replicates. The analysis of long HiFi reads of mtDNA performed by PacBio closed circular sequencing confirms this assertion.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cote-L'Heureux, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maithania, Y. N. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tilly, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-04-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.04.14.536897</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The 'Stem' and the 'Workers' of the mtDNA population of the cell. Evidence from mutational analysis.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-04-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.02.539055v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inferring control objectives in a virtual balancing task in humans and monkeys 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.02.539055v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Natural behaviors have redundancy, which implies that humans and animals can achieve their goals with different control objectives. Given only observations of behavior, is it possible to infer the control strategy that the subject is employing? This challenge is particularly acute in animal behavior because we cannot ask or instruct the subject to use a particular control strategy. This study presents a three-pronged approach to infer an animals control strategy from behavior. First, both humans and monkeys performed a virtual balancing task for which different control objectives could be utilized. Under matched experimental conditions, corresponding behaviors were observed in humans and monkeys. Second, a generative model was developed that represented two main control strategies to achieve the task goal. Model simulations were used to identify aspects of behavior that could distinguish which control objective was being used. Third, these behavioral signatures allowed us to infer the control objective used by human subjects who had been instructed to use one control objective or the other. Based on this validation, we could then infer strategies from animal subjects. Being able to positively identify a subjects control objective from behavior can provide a powerful tool to neurophysiologists as they seek the neural mechanisms of sensorimotor coordination.

Impact statementA computational approach identifies control objectives in humans and monkeys to serve as basis for analysis of neural correlates of skillful manipulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sadeghi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharif Razavian, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bazzi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chowdhury, R. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Batista, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loughlin, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sternad, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.02.539055</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inferring control objectives in a virtual balancing task in humans and monkeys]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.04.539396v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
HIF-stabilizing Biomaterials: from Hypoxia-mimicking to Hypoxia-inducing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.04.539396v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent advances in our understanding of hypoxia and hypoxia-mediated mechanisms shed light on the critical implications of the hypoxic stress on cellular behavior. However, tools emulating hypoxic conditions (i.e., low oxygen tensions) for research are limited and often suffer from major shortcomings, such as lack of reliability and off-target effects, and they usually fail to recapitulate the complexity of the tissue microenvironment. Fortunately, the field of biomaterials is constantly evolving and has a central role to play in the development of new technologies for conducting hypoxia-related research in several aspects of biomedical research, including tissue engineering, cancer modeling, and modern drug screening. In this perspective, we provide an overview of several strategies that have been investigated in the design and implementation of biomaterials for simulating or inducing hypoxic conditions--a prerequisite in the stabilization of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), a master regulator of the cellular responses to low oxygen. To this end, we discuss various advanced biomaterials, from those that integrate hypoxia-mimetic agents to artificially induce hypoxia-like responses, to those that deplete oxygen and consequently create either transient (< 1 day) or sustained (> 1 day) hypoxic conditions. We also aim to highlight the advantages and limitations of these emerging biomaterials for biomedical applications, with an emphasis on cancer research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Colombani, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhatt, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Epel, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kotecha, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bencherif, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.04.539396</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[HIF-stabilizing Biomaterials: from Hypoxia-mimicking to Hypoxia-inducing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.08.539904v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Levy movements and a slowly decaying memory allow efficient collective learning in groups of interacting foragers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.08.539904v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many animal species benefit from spatial learning to adapt their foraging movements to the distribution of resources. Learning involves the collection, storage and retrieval of information, and depends on both the random search strategies employed and the memory capacities of the individual. For animals living in social groups, spatial learning can be further enhanced by information transfer among group members. However, how individual behavior affects the emergence of collective states of learning is still poorly understood. Here, with the help of a spatially explicit agent-based model where individuals transfer information to their peers, we analyze the effects on the use of resources of varying memory capacities in combination with different exploration strategies, such as ordinary random walks and Levy flights. We find that individual Levy displacements associated with a slow memory decay lead to a very rapid collective response, a high group cohesion and to an optimal exploitation of the best resource patches in static but complex environments, even when the interaction rate among individuals is low.

Author SummaryHow groups of social animals collectively learn to find and exploit resources in complex environments is not well-understood. By means of a computational model where individuals are initially spread out across a landscape, we study the effects of individual exploratory behaviors and memory capacities on the emergence of spatial learning. Collective learning emerges spontaneously only if group members transfer information between each other at a sufficiently high rate, so that individual experiences can be used by others. In static but heterogeneous environments with many resource sites of varying attractiveness, we find that random displacements over many spatial scales combined with a slow memory decay lead to a rapid collective response and highly cohesive groups. Collective learning is noticeable through an optimal exploitation of the best resource sites, which far exceeds what individuals would achieve on their own. Our study sheds light on important mechanisms responsible for collective learning in ecology, with potential applications in other areas of science.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Falcon-Cortes, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boyer, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aldana, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramos-Fernandez, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.08.539904</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Levy movements and a slowly decaying memory allow efficient collective learning in groups of interacting foragers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.15.540765v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A new antibiotic from an uncultured bacterium binds to an immutable target 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.15.540765v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antimicrobial resistance is a leading mortality factor worldwide. Here we report the discovery of clovibactin, a new antibiotic, isolated from uncultured soil bacteria. Clovibactin efficiently kills drug-resistant bacterial pathogens without detectable resistance. Using biochemical assays, solid-state NMR, and atomic force microscopy, we dissect its mode of action. Clovibactin blocks cell wall synthesis by targeting pyrophosphate of multiple essential peptidoglycan precursors (C55PP, Lipid II, LipidWTA). Clovibactin uses an unusual hydrophobic interface to tightly wrap around pyrophosphate, but bypasses the variable structural elements of precursors, accounting for the lack of resistance. Selective and efficient target binding is achieved by the irreversible sequestration of precursors into supramolecular fibrils that only form on bacterial membranes that contain lipid-anchored pyrophosphate groups. Uncultured bacteria offer a rich reservoir of antibiotics with new mechanisms of action that could replenish the antimicrobial discovery pipeline.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shukla, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peoples, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ludwig, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maity, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Derks, M. G. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krueger, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Benedetti, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vermeulen, B. J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Honorato, R. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grein, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lavore, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonvin, A. M. J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kubitscheck, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breukink, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Achorn, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nitti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwalen, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spoering, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ling, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lelli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roos, W. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schneider, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weingarth, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.15.540765</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A new antibiotic from an uncultured bacterium binds to an immutable target]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.16.538950v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Engineered bacteria titrate hydrogen sulfide and induce concentration-dependent effects on host in a gut microphysiological system 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.16.538950v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a gaseous microbial metabolite whose role in gut diseases is debated, largely due to the difficulty in controlling its concentration and the use of non-representative model systems in previous work. Here, we engineered E. coli to titrate H2S controllably across the physiological range in a gut microphysiological system (chip) supportive of the co-culture of microbes and host cells. The chip was designed to maintain H2S gas tension and enable visualization of co-culture in real-time with confocal microscopy. Engineered strains colonized the chip and were metabolically active for two days, during which they produced H2S across a sixteen-fold range and induced changes in host gene expression and metabolism in an H2S concentration-dependent manner. These results validate a novel platform for studying the mechanisms underlying microbe-host interactions, by enabling experiments that are infeasible with current animal and in vitro models.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hayes, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lunger, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fernez, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woolston, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.16.538950</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Engineered bacteria titrate hydrogen sulfide and induce concentration-dependent effects on host in a gut microphysiological system]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.19.541506v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Novel mechanism of MYC deregulation in Multiple Myeloma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.19.541506v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MYC deregulation occurs in 67% of multiple myeloma (MM) cases and associates with progression and worse prognosis in MM. Enhanced MYC expression is known to be driven by translocation or amplification events, but it only occurs in 40% of MM patients. Here, we describe a new mechanism of MYC regulation, whereby epigenetic regulation of MYC by increased accessibility of a cell-type specific enhancer leads to increased MYC expression. We found enhancer activity does not associate with enhancer hijacking events. We identified specific binding of c-MAF, IRF4, and SPIB transcription factors to the enhancer can activate MYC. In addition, we discovered focal amplification of this specific enhancer in approximately 4% of MM patients. Together, our findings define a new epigenetic mechanism of MYC deregulation in MM beyond known translocations or amplifications and point to the importance of non-coding regulatory elements and their associated transcription factor networks as drivers of MM progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rahmat, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clement, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alberge, J.-B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sklavenitis-Pistofidis, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kodgule, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fulco, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heilpern-Mallory, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nilsson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dorfman, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engreitz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Getz, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinello, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ryan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghobrial, I. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.19.541506</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Novel mechanism of MYC deregulation in Multiple Myeloma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.24.542018v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structure of mitoribosome reveals mechanism of mRNA binding, tRNA interactions with L1 stalk, roles of cofactors and rRNA modifications 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.24.542018v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The mitoribosome translates mitochondrial mRNAs and regulates energy conversion that is a signature of aerobic life forms. We present a 2.2 [A] resolution structure of human mitoribosome together with validated mitoribosomal RNA (rRNA) modifications, including aminoacylated CP-tRNAVal. The structure shows how mitoribosomal proteins stabilise binding of mRNA and tRNA helping to align it in the decoding center, whereas the GDP-bound mS29 stabilizes intersubunit communication. Comparison between different states, with respect to tRNA position, allowed to characterize a non-canonical L1 stalk, and molecular dynamics simulations revealed how it facilitates tRNA transition in a way that does not require interactions with rRNA. We also report functionally important polyamines that are depleted when cells are subjected to an antibiotic treatment. The structural, biochemical, and computational data illuminate the principal functional components of the translation mechanism in mitochondria and provide the most complete description so far of the structure and function of the human mitoribosome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Singh, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Itoh, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Del'Olio, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hassan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Naschberger, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flygaard, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nobe, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Izumikawa, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aibara, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andrell, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrientos, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taoka, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amunts, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.24.542018</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structure of mitoribosome reveals mechanism of mRNA binding, tRNA interactions with L1 stalk, roles of cofactors and rRNA modifications]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.25.542343v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modeling kidney development, disease, and plasticity with clonal expandable nephron progenitor cells and nephron organoids 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.25.542343v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Nephron progenitor cells (NPCs) self-renew and differentiate into nephrons, the functional units of the kidney. Here we report manipulation of p38 and YAP activity creates a synthetic niche that allows the long-term clonal expansion of primary mouse and human NPCs, and induced NPCs (iNPCs) from human pluripotent stem cells. Cultured iNPCs resemble closely primary human NPCs, generating nephron organoids with abundant distal convoluted tubule cells, which are not observed in published kidney organoids. The synthetic niche reprograms differentiated nephron cells into NPC state, recapitulating the plasticity of developing nephron in vivo. Scalability and ease of genome-editing in the cultured NPCs allow for genome-wide CRISPR screening, identi-fying novel genes associated with kidney development and disease. A rapid, efficient, and scala-ble organoid model for polycystic kidney disease was derived directly from genome-edited NPCs, and validated in drug screen. These technological platforms have broad applications to kidney development, disease, plasticity, and regeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeng, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schreiber, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vonk, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parvez, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Der, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thornton, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grubbs, B. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gnedeva, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lindstrom, N. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ying, Q.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pastor-Soler, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hallows, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McMahon, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.25.542343</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modeling kidney development, disease, and plasticity with clonal expandable nephron progenitor cells and nephron organoids]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.25.542360v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identification of post-transcriptional modifications in nucleic acid sequences using propose-designed molecular beacons 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.25.542360v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Post-transcriptional RNA modifications (PTxMs) present in small RNA species, specifically circulating extracellular RNAs, were recently identified as clinically relevant readouts, often more indicative of disease severity than the classical "up and down" changes in their copy number alone. While identification of PTxMs requires multiple and complex sample preparation steps, microgram-range amounts of RNA, followed by expensive and protracted bioinformatics analyses, the clinically relevant information is usually a yes/no for a particular genetic variant(s), and an up/down answer for relevant biomarkers. We have previously shown that molecular beacons (MBs) can identify specific nucleic acid sequences with picomolar sensitivity and single nucleotide specificity by exploiting the target-dependent change in their electrophoretic mobility profile. We now present a method for direct identification of miRNAs and isomiRs in cells and extracellular vesicles using gel electrophoresis, without the need for RNA isolation and purification. The detection is based on discreet changes in the hydrodynamic surface profile, the overall size, charge and charge distribution of the MB-target hybrid. Furthermore, using an RNA tertiary structure prediction algorithm (iFoldRNA) and a custom molecular dynamics simulation (DMD), we designed modified MBs specific for m6A-modified nucleotides in target RNA sequences. The sample preparation method coupled to the software package affords the design of specific MBs and sensitive, multiplex-type detection of targets in a wide variety of biofluids and cells, in a simple mix and read approach.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sahu, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pereira, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dokholyan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Szeliski, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>tran, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Korneck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tigges, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghiran, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.25.542360</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identification of post-transcriptional modifications in nucleic acid sequences using propose-designed molecular beacons]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.29.542740v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Allosteric site variants affect GTP hydrolysis on RAS 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.29.542740v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AbstractRAS GTPases are proto-oncoproteins that regulate cell growth, proliferation, and differentiation in response to extracellular signals. The signaling functions of RAS, and other small GTPases, are dependent on their ability to cycle between GDP-bound and GTP-bound states. Structural analyses suggest that GTP hydrolysis catalyzed by HRAS can be regulated by an allosteric site located between helices 3, 4 and loop 7. Here we explore the relationship between intrinsic GTP hydrolysis on HRAS and the position of helix 3 and loop 7 through manipulation of the allosteric site, showing that the two sites are functionally connected. We generated several hydrophobic mutations in the allosteric site of HRAS to promote shifts in helix 3 relative to helix 4. By combining crystallography and enzymology to study these mutants, we show that closure of the allosteric site correlates with increased hydrolysis of GTP on HRAS in solution. Interestingly, binding to the RAS binding domain of RAF kinase (RAF-RBD) inhibits GTP hydrolysis in the mutants. This behavior may be representative of a cluster of poorly understood mutations that occur in human tumors, which potentially cooperate with RAF complex formation to stabilize the GTP-bound state of RAS.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Johnson, C. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fetics, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, K. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodrigues, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mattos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.29.542740</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Allosteric site variants affect GTP hydrolysis on RAS]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.02.543453v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Conformational heterogeneity of the BTK PHTH domain drives multiple regulatory states 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.02.543453v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Full-length BTK has been refractory to structural analysis. The nearest full-length structure of BTK to date consists of the autoinhibited SH3-SH2-kinase core. Precisely how the BTK N-terminal domains (the Pleckstrin homology/Tec homology (PHTH) domain and proline-rich regions (PRR) contain linker) contribute to BTK regulation remains unclear. We have produced crystals of full-length BTK for the first time but despite efforts to stabilize the autoinhibited state, the diffraction data still reveals only the SH3-SH2-kinase core with no electron density visible for the PHTH-PRR segment. CryoEM data of full-length BTK, on the other hand, provide the first view of the PHTH domain within full-length BTK. CryoEM reconstructions support conformational heterogeneity in the PHTH-PRR region wherein the globular PHTH domain adopts a range of states arrayed around the autoinhibited SH3-SH2-kinase core. On the way to activation, disassembly of the SH3-SH2-kinase core opens a new autoinhibitory site on the kinase domain for PHTH domain binding that is ultimately released upon interaction of PHTH with PIP 3. Membrane-induced dimerization activates BTK and we present here a crystal structure of an activation loop swapped BTK kinase domain dimer that likely represents the conformational state leading to trans-autophosphorylation. Together, these data provide the first structural elucidation of full-length BTK and allow a deeper understanding of allosteric control over the BTK kinase domain during distinct stages of activation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lin, D. Y.-w.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kueffer, L. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juneja, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andreotti, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.02.543453</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Conformational heterogeneity of the BTK PHTH domain drives multiple regulatory states]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.03.543561v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Pumpless, High-Throughput Microphysiological SystemConfirms Enteric Innervation of Duodenal Epithelium Strengthensthe Barrier Function 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.03.543561v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Enteric neurons, diverse in function and great in number, are heavily involved in homeostasis within the small intestine and their dysregulation has been implicated in gastrointestinal disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Innovations in biofabrication have resulted in advances for in vitro models of the gut, however the majority lack enteric innervation, limiting therapeutic screening and discovery. Here, we present a high-throughput co-cultured microphysiological system (MPS), or organ chip, that supports a primary epithelial monolayer that directly interfaces with a three-dimensional hydrogel containing a primary enteric neuron culture, mimicking the close proximity present in vivo. The acrylic MPS device was fabricated with our established and cost-effective laser cut and assemble method. We have expanded this technology to include up to twelve 3D MPSs per device within the footprint of a traditional well-plate, supporting high-throughput experimentation. The inclusion of this 3D microtissue does not hinder physiologically relevant flow, standard measures of barrier function, and microscopy techniques. The device features gravity-driven flow to induce physiological shear stress on the epithelium culture and provide continuous nutrient presentation. Results show the intestinal and neural tissue maintained expected morphologies over an experimental timeline of ten days. Proximal enteric neurons extend neurites through the 3D hydrogel towards the epithelial monolayer. Barrier function was confirmed with both Transepithelial Electrical Resistance (TEER) and Lucifer Yellow diffusion on-chip. TEER confirmed a significantly more substantial barrier integrity in co-cultures compared to baseline values (1.25-fold) in epithelial cell-only. Lucifer yellow permeability assays performed in parallel supported the TEER results, with an 11.8% lower permeability of the co-cultured group than the epithelium only. The presence of the ENS on chip results in a significant (1.4 fold) reduction in epidermal growth factor (EGF). This is the first high-throughput, innervated gut on a chip device that demonstrates the importance of the autonomic nervous system on EGF expression and possibly epithelial renewal in vitro. Innervation is essential to create more biomimetic and physiologically relevant in vitro models for biological and pharmacological assays.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nichols, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snyder, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.03.543561</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Pumpless, High-Throughput Microphysiological SystemConfirms Enteric Innervation of Duodenal Epithelium Strengthensthe Barrier Function]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.03.543589v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A deep learning-based drug repurposing screening and validation for anti-SARS-CoV-2 compounds by targeting the cell entry mechanism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.03.543589v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The recent outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been a severe threat to the global public health and economy, however, effective drugs to treat COVID-19 are still lacking. Here, we employ a deep learning-based drug repositioning strategy to systematically screen potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug candidates that target the cell entry mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 virus from 2,635 FDA-approved drugs and 1,062 active ingredients from Traditional Chinese Medicine herbs. In silico molecular docking analysis validates the interactions between the top compounds and host receptors or viral spike proteins. Using a SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus system, we further identify several drug candidates including Fostamatinib, Linagliptin, Lysergol and Sophoridine that can effectively block the cell entry of SARS-CoV-2 variants into human lung cells even at a nanomolar scale. These efforts not only illuminate the feasibility of applying deep learning-based drug repositioning for antiviral agents by targeting a specified mechanism, but also provide a valuable resource of promising drug candidates or lead compounds to treat COVID-19.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, W.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, H.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.03.543589</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A deep learning-based drug repurposing screening and validation for anti-SARS-CoV-2 compounds by targeting the cell entry mechanism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.08.544202v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Diversity at single nucleotide to pangenome scales among sulfur cycling bacteria in salt marshes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.08.544202v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sulfur-oxidizing and sulfate-reducing bacteria in salt marsh sediments are major controllers of ecosystem-scale carbon cycling. Cross-site comparisons of S-cycling communities are difficult given the rampant uncultured microbial diversity in sediment, yet comparisons are essential for revealing biogeographic, phylogenetic and functionally significant variation. Here, we use deep shotgun metagenomic sequencing data to construct and compare metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) of sulfur-cycling bacteria from Massachusetts and Alabama salt marshes that contrast in seasonality and sediment organic matter content. Samples were collected from sediments under Sporobolus alterniflorus and Sporobolus pumilus in separate MA vegetation zones, and under Sporobolus alterniflorus and Juncus roemerianus co-rooted in AL marsh. We grouped metagenomic data by plant species and site and identified 38 MAGs that included pathways for dissimilatory sulfate reduction or sulfide oxidation. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that 30 of the 38 were affiliated with uncultivated lineages. Read-mapping to MAGs showed significant differentiation of AL and MA samples, differentiation of samples taken in S. alterniflorus and S. pumilus vegetation zones in MA, but no differentiation of samples taken under S. alterniflorus and J. roemerianus that were rooted together in AL marsh. Pangenomic analyses of eight ubiquitous MAGs also detected site- and vegetation-specific genomic features, including varied sulfur-cycling operons, carbon fixation pathways, fixed single nucleotide variants, and active diversity-generating retroelements. This genetic diversity, detected at multiple scales even within uncultured groups, suggests evolutionary relationships affected by distance and local environment, and demonstrates differential microbial capacities for sulfur and carbon cycling in salt marsh sediments.

ImportanceSalt marshes are known for their significant carbon storage capacity, and sulfur cycling is closely linked with the ecosystem-scale carbon cycling in these ecosystems. Sulfate reducers are the major decomposers in salt marsh systems, and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria remove sulfide, a toxic byproduct of sulfate reduction, supporting the productivity of marsh plants. To date, the complexity of coastal environments, heterogeneity of the rhizosphere, high microbial diversity and uncultured majority hindered our understanding of the genomic diversity of sulfur-cycling microbes in salt marshes. Here we use comparative genomics to overcome these challenges and provide an in-depth characterization of microbial diversity in salt marshes. We characterize sulfur-cycling communities across distinct sites and plant species and uncover extensive genomic diversity at the taxon level and specific genomic features present in MAGs affiliated with sulfur-cycling uncultivated lineages. Our work provides insights into the partnerships in salt marshes and a roadmap for multiscale analyses of diversity in complex biological systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Perez Castro, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peredo, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mason, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vineis, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowen, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mortazavi, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ganesh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruff, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paul, B. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giblin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cardon, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.08.544202</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Diversity at single nucleotide to pangenome scales among sulfur cycling bacteria in salt marshes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.10.544442v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A subtle structural modification of a synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist drastically increases its efficacy at the CB1 receptor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.10.544442v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The emergence of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) as illicit psychoactive substances has posed considerable public health risks that include fatalities. Many SCRAs exhibit much higher efficacy and potency, compared with the phytocannabinoid {Delta}9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), at the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1R), a G protein-coupled receptor involved in modulating neurotransmitter release. In this study, we investigated structure activity relationships (SAR) of aminoalkylindole SCRAs at CB1Rs, focusing on 5F-pentylindoles containing an amide linker attached to different head moieties. Using in vitro bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) assays, we identified a few of SCRAs exhibiting significantly higher efficacy in engaging the Gi protein and recruiting {beta}-arrestin than the reference CB1R full agonist CP55940. Importantly, adding a methyl group at the head moiety of 5F-MMB-PICA yielded 5F-MDMB-PICA, an agonist exhibiting a large increase in efficacy and potency at the CB1R. This pharmacological observation was supported by a functional assay of the effects of these SCRAs on glutamate field potentials recorded in hippocampal slices. Molecular modeling and simulations of the CB1R bound with either of the SCRAs revealed critical structural determinants contributing to the higher efficacy of 5F-MDMB-PICA, and how these subtle differences propagated to the receptor-G protein interface. Thus, we find that apparently minor structural changes in the head moiety of SCRAs can cause major changes in efficacy. Our results highlight the need for close monitoring of structural modifications of newly emerging SCRAs and their potential for toxic drug responses in humans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yano, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chitsazi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lucaj, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tran, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffman, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baumann, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lupica, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.10.544442</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A subtle structural modification of a synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist drastically increases its efficacy at the CB1 receptor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.11.544497v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comparing kinetic proofreading and kinetic segregation for T cell receptor activation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.11.544497v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The T cell receptor (TCR) is a key component of the adaptive immune system, recognizing foreign antigens and triggering an immune response. Competing models exist to explain the high sensitivity and selectivity of the TCR in discriminating  self from  non-self antigens, particularly models using kinetic proofreading (KP), kinetic segregation (KS), and combinations of the two. In this paper, we consider the role and importance of KS in TCR activation, using two models: classic KP (cKP), without KS, where antigen-TCR binding is required for activation, and a combination of KP and KS (KS-KP), where only residence within a close contact is required for activation. Building on previous work, our computational model is the first to permit a head-to-head comparison of these models in silico. While we find that both models can be used to explain the probability of TCR activation across much of the parameter space, we find biologically important regions in the parameter space where significant differences in performance can be expected. Furthermore, we show that the available experimental evidence may favour the KS-KP model over cKP. Our results may be used to motivate and guide future experiments to determine highly accurate computational models for the TCR.

Author summaryThe T cell receptor (TCR) is a master of reliable sensing: it detects faint  signals (rare ligands derived from foreign proteins) over high  noise (abundant ligands derived from the bodys own proteins) to set T cells on a course to exterminate pathogens and tumours, a process that is central to our immune response. Despite decades of studying TCR signalling, we still do not know how the TCR can be so exceptionally sensitive and accurate. It is widely believed that kinetic proofreading (KP), in which the TCR binds to an antigen and triggers a series of phosphorylation steps prior to activation, plays an important role. However, recent results suggest that kinetic segregation (KS), in which binding is not required, is also important. These models are mutually exclusive, and yet both appear to explain various aspects of T cell activation.

Our work directly addresses this puzzle. We develop a computational modeling framework which can simulate TCR activation by both KP-based and KS-based models, making it possible to compare them in silico for the first time. Using this framework, we find conditions under which the two models provide different responses, and we show that the limited experimental evidence to date is consistent with KS, which should motivate further investigation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moffett, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ganzinger, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eckford, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.11.544497</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comparing kinetic proofreading and kinetic segregation for T cell receptor activation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.20.545093v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Predicting the impact of rare variants on RNA splicing in CAGI6 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.20.545093v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundVariants which disrupt splicing are a frequent cause of rare disease that have been under-ascertained clinically. Accurate and efficient methods to predict a variants impact on splicing are needed to interpret the growing number of variants of unknown significance (VUS) identified by exome and genome sequencing. Here we present the results of the CAGI6 Splicing VUS challenge, which invited predictions of the splicing impact of 56 variants ascertained clinically and functionally validated to determine splicing impact.

ResultsThe performance of 12 prediction methods, along with SpliceAI and CADD, was compared on the 56 functionally validated variants. The maximum overall accuracy achieved was 82% from two different approaches, one weighting SpliceAI scores by minor allele frequency, and one applying the recently published Splicing Prediction Pipeline (SPiP). SPiP performed optimally in terms of sensitivity, while an ensemble method combining multiple prediction tools and information from databases exceeded all others for specificity.

ConclusionsSeveral challenge methods equalled or exceeded the performance of SpliceAI, with ultimate choice of prediction method likely to depend on experimental or clinical aims. One quarter of the variants were incorrectly predicted by at least 50% of the methods, highlighting the need for further improvements to splicing prediction methods for successful clinical application.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lord, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaramillo Oquendo, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wai, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Douglas, A. G. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bunyan, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeng, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Danis, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katsonis, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lichtarge, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bagnall, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mount, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matthiasardottir, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Overeem Hansen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leman, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martins, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Houdayer, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krieger, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bakolitsa, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamandula, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baralle, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.20.545093</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Predicting the impact of rare variants on RNA splicing in CAGI6]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.23.546122v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rapid Prototyping of Thermoplastic Microfluidic 3D Cell Culture Devices by Creating Regional Hydrophilicity Discrepancy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.23.546122v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Microfluidic three-dimensional cell culture devices that enable the recapitulation of key aspects of organ structures and functions in vivo represent a promising preclinical platform to improve translational success during drug discovery. Essential to these engineered devices is the spatial patterning of cells from different tissue types within a confined microenvironment. Traditional fabrication strategies lack the scalability, cost-effectiveness, and rapid prototyping capabilities required for industrial applications, especially for processes involving thermoplastic materials. Here, we introduce an approach to pattern fluid guides inside microchannels by establishing differential hydrophilicity using pressure-sensitive adhesives as masks and a subsequent selective coating with a biocompatible polymer. We identified optimal coating conditions using polyvinylpyrrolidone, which resulted in rapid and consistent hydrogel flow in both the open-chip prototype and the fully bonded device containing additional features for medium perfusion. We tested the suitability of our device for dynamic 3D cell culture by growing human hepatocytes in the device under controlled fluid flow for a 14-day period. Additionally, we demonstrated the potential of using our device for pharmaceutical high-throughput screening applications, such as predicting drug-induced liver injury. Our approach offers a facile strategy of rapid prototyping thermoplastic microfluidic organ chips with varying geometries, microstructures, and substrate materials.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bai, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olson, K. N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilbride, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, Y.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Si, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maharjan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Livermore, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.23.546122</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rapid Prototyping of Thermoplastic Microfluidic 3D Cell Culture Devices by Creating Regional Hydrophilicity Discrepancy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.27.546774v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Lysine vitcylation is a novel vitamin C-derived protein modification that enhances STAT1-mediated immune response 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.27.546774v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vitamin C (vitC) is a vital nutrient for health and also used as a therapeutic agent in diseases such as cancer. However, the mechanisms underlying vitCs effects remain elusive. Here we report that vitC directly modifies lysine without enzymes to form vitcyl-lysine, termed "vitcylation", in a dose-, pH-, and sequence-dependent manner across diverse proteins in cells. We further discover that vitC vitcylates K298 site of STAT1, which impairs its interaction with the phosphatase PTPN2, preventing STAT1 Y701 dephosphorylation and leading to increased STAT1-mediated IFN pathway activation in tumor cells. As a result, these cells have increased MHC/HLA class-I expression and activate immune cells in co-cultures. Tumors collected from vitC-treated tumor-bearing mice have enhanced vitcylation, STAT1 phosphorylation and antigen presentation. The identification of vitcylation as a novel PTM and the characterization of its effect in tumor cells opens a new avenue for understanding vitC in cellular processes, disease mechanisms, and therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>He, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bergholz, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asara, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cantley, L. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.27.546774</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lysine vitcylation is a novel vitamin C-derived protein modification that enhances STAT1-mediated immune response]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.09.548132v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Real-time targeted illumination in widefield microscopy achieves confocal quality neuronal images 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.09.548132v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Widefield fluorescence imaging has significant challenges in visualizing neuronal fibers near cell bodies. Specifically, out-of-focus and scattered light from the bright cellbody often obscures nearby dim fibers and degrades their signal-to-background ratio. Scanning techniques can solve this problem but are limited by reduced imaging speed and increased cost. We greatly reduce stray light by modulating the illumination intensity to different structures. We use a digital micromirror device in the illumination channel of a common widefield microscope and use real-time image processing to pattern the illumination. With the setup, we illuminate bright cell bodies with minimal light intensity, and illuminate in focus fiber-like structures with high light intensity to reveal weak signals. Thus, we minimize the background and enhance the visibility of fibers in the final image. This targeted illumination significantly improves fiber contrast while maintaining a fast-imaging speed and low cost. Using a targeted illumination setup in a widefield microscope, we demonstrate confocal quality imaging of complex neurons in live C. elegans and zebrafish larva, as well as in in vitro mice brain slice.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.09.548132</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Real-time targeted illumination in widefield microscopy achieves confocal quality neuronal images]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.11.548560v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comammox bacterial preference for urea influences its interactions with aerobic nitrifiers. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.11.548560v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While the co-existence of comammox bacteria with canonical nitrifiers is well documented in diverse ecosystems, there is still a dearth of knowledge about the mechanisms underpinning their interactions. Understanding these interaction mechanisms is important as they may play a critical role in governing nitrogen biotransformation in natural and engineered ecosystems. In this study, we tested the ability of two environmentally relevant factors (nitrogen source and availability) to shape interactions between strict ammonia and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria and comammox bacteria in continuous flow column reactors. The composition of inorganic nitrogen species in reactors fed either ammonia or urea was similar during the lowest nitrogen loading condition (1 mg-N/L), but higher loadings (2 and 4 mg-N/L) promoted significant differences in nitrogen species composition and nitrifier abundances. The abundance and diversity of comammox bacteria were dependent on both nitrogen source and loading conditions as multiple comammox bacterial populations were preferentially enriched in the urea-fed system. In contrast, their abundance was reduced in response to higher nitrogen loadings in the ammonia-fed system likely due to ammonia-based inhibition. The preferential enrichment of comammox bacteria in the urea-fed system could be associated with their ureolytic activity calibrated to their ammonia oxidation rates thus minimizing ammonia accumulation to inhibitory levels. However, an increased abundance of comammox bacteria was not associated with a reduced abundance of nitrite oxidizers in the urea-fed system while a negative correlation was found between them in the ammonia-fed system; the latter dynamic likely emerging from reduced availability of nitrite to strict nitrite oxidizers at low ammonia loading conditions.

ImportanceNitrification is an essential biological process in drinking water and wastewater treatment systems for managing nitrogen and protecting downstream water quality. The discovery of comammox bacteria and their detection alongside canonical nitrifiers in these engineered ecosystems has made it necessary to understand the environmental conditions that regulate their abundance and activity relative to other better-studied nitrifiers. This study aimed to evaluate two important factors that could potentially influence the behavior of nitrifying bacteria, and therefore impact nitrification processes. Colum reactors fed with either ammonia or urea were systematically monitored to capture changes in nitrogen biotransformation and the nitrifying community as a function of influent nitrogen concentration, nitrogen source, and reactor depth. Our findings show that comammox bacterial abundance decreased and that of nitrite oxidizers increased with increased ammonia availability, while their abundance and diversity increased with increasing urea availability without driving a reduction in the abundance of canonical nitrifiers.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vilardi, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnston, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cotto, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tuttle, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patterson, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stubbins, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.11.548560</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comammox bacterial preference for urea influences its interactions with aerobic nitrifiers.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.20.548178v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cortical and subcortical mapping of the allostatic-interoceptive system in the human brain: replication and extension with 7 Tesla fMRI 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.20.548178v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The brain continuously anticipates the energetic needs of the body and prepares to meet those needs before they arise, called allostasis. In support of allostasis, the brain continually models the sensory state of the body, called interoception. We replicated and extended a large-scale system supporting allostasis and interoception in the human brain using ultra-high precision 7 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (N = 90), improving the precision of subgenual and pregenual anterior cingulate topography combined with extensive brainstem nuclei mapping. We observed over 90% of the anatomical connections published in tract-tracing studies in non-human animals. The system also included regions of dense intrinsic connectivity broadly throughout the system, some of which were identified previously as part of the backbone of neural communication across the brain. These results strengthen previous evidence for a whole-brain system supporting the modeling and regulation of the internal milieu of the body.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srirangarajan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Theriault, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kragel, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hartley, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McVeigh, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wager, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wald, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satpute, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quigley, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrett, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bianciardi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.20.548178</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cortical and subcortical mapping of the allostatic-interoceptive system in the human brain: replication and extension with 7 Tesla fMRI]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.23.549940v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Matrix stiffness modulates 3D spheroid sorting and burst-like collective migration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.23.549940v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While it is known that cells with differential adhesion tend to segregate and preferentially sort, the physical forces governing sorting and invasion in heterogeneous tumors remain poorly understood. To investigate this, we tune matrix confinement, mimicking changes in the stiffness and confinement of the tumor microenvironment, to explore how physical confinement influences individual and collective cell migration in 3D spheroids. High levels of confinement lead to cell sorting while reducing matrix confinement triggers the collective fluidization of cell motion. Cell sorting, which depends on cell-cell adhesion, is crucial to this phenomenon. Burst-like migration does not occur for spheroids that have not undergone sorting, regardless of the degree of matrix confinement. Using computational Self-Propelled Voronoi modeling, we show that spheroid sorting and invasion into the matrix depend on the balance between cell-generated forces and matrix resistance. The findings support a model where matrix confinement modulates 3D spheroid sorting and unjamming in an adhesion-dependent manner, providing insights into the mechanisms of cell sorting and migration in the primary tumor and toward distant metastatic sites.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cai, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, S.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koning, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.23.549940</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Matrix stiffness modulates 3D spheroid sorting and burst-like collective migration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.29.551111v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Data-driven modeling of core gene regulatory network underlying leukemogenesis in IDH mutant AML 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.29.551111v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of poorly differentiated myeloid cells, with a heterogenous mutational landscape. Mutations in IDH1 and IDH2 are found in 20% of the AML cases. Although much effort has been made to identify genes associated with leukemogenesis, the regulatory mechanism of AML state transition is still not fully understood. To alleviate this issue, here we develop a new computational approach that integrates genomic data from diverse sources, including gene expression and ATAC-seq datasets, curated gene regulatory interaction databases, and mathematical modeling to establish models of context-specific core gene regulatory networks (GRNs) for a mechanistic understanding of tumorigenesis of AML with IDH mutations. The approach adopts a novel optimization procedure to identify the optimal network according to its accuracy in capturing gene expression states and its flexibility to allow sufficient control of state transitions. From GRN modeling, we identify key regulators associated with the function of IDH mutations, such as DNA methyltransferase DNMT1, and network destabilizers, such as E2F1. The constructed core regulatory network and outcomes of in-silico network perturbations are supported by survival data from AML patients. We expect that the combined bioinformatics and systems-biology modeling approach will be generally applicable to elucidate the gene regulation of disease progression.

SignificanceA combined bioinformatics and systems-biology modeling approach is designed to model a transcriptional regulatory network for AML with IDH mutations. Network modeling identifies key regulators DNMT1 and E2F1, which is supported by patient survival data.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Katebi, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.29.551111</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Data-driven modeling of core gene regulatory network underlying leukemogenesis in IDH mutant AML]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.03.551705v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comprehensive genome editing confers "off-the-shelf" CAR-T cells superior efficacy against solid tumors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.03.551705v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Biochemical and immunological negative regulators converge to inhibit tumor-reactive Chimeric Antigen Receptor T (CAR-T) cells, which may explain clinical failures of CAR-T cell therapies against solid tumors. Here, we developed a multifaceted approach to genetically engineer allogeneic ( off -the-shelf) CAR-T cells resistant to both biochemical (adenosine) and immunological (PD-L1 and TGF-{beta}) inhibitory signaling. We multiplexed an adenine base editor with a CRISPR-Cas12b nuclease to manufacture a CAR-T cell product comprising six gene edits to evade allorejection (B2M, CIITA), prevent graft-versus-host disease (CD3E) and resist major biochemical (ADORA2A) and immunological (PDCD1, TGFBR2) immunosuppressive barriers in solid tumors. Combinatorial genetic disruption in CAR-T cells enabled superior anti-tumor efficacy leading to improved tumor elimination and survival in humanized mouse models that recapitulated the suppressive features of a human tumor microenvironment (TME). This novel engineering strategy conferred CAR-T cells resistance to a diverse TME, which may unlock the therapeutic potential of CAR-T cells against solid tumors.

One Sentence SummaryMultiplex genome engineered CAR-T cells resistant to allorejection and the convergence of biochemical and immunological negative regulators within the tumor microenvironment exhibit superior efficacy against solid tumors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Murray, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Navarrete, N. R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chowdhury, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chilakapati, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chong, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Messana, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sobon, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rocha, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Musenge, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camblin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ciaramella, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sitkovsky, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maldini, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatfield, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.03.551705</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comprehensive genome editing confers "off-the-shelf" CAR-T cells superior efficacy against solid tumors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.06.552190v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
RACER-m Leverages Structural Features for Sparse T Cell Specificity Prediction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.06.552190v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Reliable prediction of T cell specificity against antigenic signatures is a formidable task, complicated primarily by the immense diversity of T cell receptor and antigen sequence space and the resulting limited availability of training sets for inferential models. Recent modeling efforts have demonstrated the advantage of incorporating structural information to overcome the need for extensive training sequence data, yet disentangling the heterogeneous TCR-antigen structural interface to accurately predict the MHC-allele-restricted TCR-peptide binding interactions remained challenging. Here, we present RACER-m, a coarse-grained structural template model leveraging key biophysical information from the diversity of publicly available TCR-antigen crystal structures. We find explicit inclusion of structural content substantially reduces the required number of training examples for reliable prediction of TCR-recognition specificity and sensitivity across diverse biological contexts. We demonstrate that our structural model capably identifies biophysically meaningful point-mutants that affect overall binding affinity, distinguishing its ability in predicting TCR specificity of point mutants peptides from alternative sequence-based methods. Collectively, our approach combines biophysical and inferential learning-based methods to predict TCR-peptide binding events using sparse training data. Its application is broadly applicable to studies involving both closely-related and structurally diverse TCR-peptide pairs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chau, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.06.552190</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[RACER-m Leverages Structural Features for Sparse T Cell Specificity Prediction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.08.552499v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Graph Theoretical Network Structures Underlie Age-Related Differences in the Functional Connectome During Rest and Music Listening 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.08.552499v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Aging is associated with decreased functional connectivity within the default mode network, as well as auditory and reward systems which are involved in music listening. Understanding how music listening affects network organization of the aging brain, both globally and specific to the brain networks, will have implications for designing lifestyle interventions that tap into distinct networks in the brain. Here we apply graph-theory metrics of modularity, global efficiency, clustering coefficients, degrees, and betweenness centrality to compare younger and older adults (YA/OA, N=24 per group) in fMRI connectivity during rest and a music listening task. Results show a less modular but more globally efficient connectome in OAs, especially during music listening, resulting in main effects of group and task, as well as group-by-task interactions. ROI analyses indicated that the posterior cingulate is more centrally located than the medial prefrontal cortex in OAs. Overall, reduced modularity and increased global efficiency with age is in keeping with previously-observed functional reorganizations, and interaction effects show that age-related differences in baseline network organization are reflected in, potentially magnified by, music listening.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Belden, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.08.552499</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Graph Theoretical Network Structures Underlie Age-Related Differences in the Functional Connectome During Rest and Music Listening]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.11.552890v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An adult clock component links circadian rhythms to pancreatic β-cell maturation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.11.552890v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Circadian clocks attune metabolism to daily energy cycles, but how they regulate functional maturation of metabolic tissues is poorly understood. Here we show that DEC1, a clock transcription factor induced in adult islet {beta} cells, coordinates their glucose responsiveness by synchronizing energetic and secretory rhythms. DEC1 binds and regulates maturity-linked genes to integrate insulin exocytosis with {beta}-cell energy metabolism, and {beta}-cell-specific Dec1 ablation disrupts their transcription synchrony. Dec1-disrupted mice develop lifelong glucose intolerance and insulin deficiency, despite normal islet formation. Metabolic dysfunction upon {beta}-cell Dec1 loss stems from poor coupling of islet insulin secretion to glucose metabolism, reminiscent of fetal/neonatal islet immaturity. We link stunted maturation to a deficit in circadian bioenergetics, prompted by compromised glucose utilization, mitochondrial dynamics, and respiratory metabolism, which is rescued by increased metabolic flux. Thus, DEC1 links circadian clockwork to {beta}-cell metabolic maturation, revealing a hierarchy for how the clock programs metabolic tissue specialization.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Montalvo, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gruskin, Z. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahn, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Straubhaar, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez-Dominguez, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.11.552890</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An adult clock component links circadian rhythms to pancreatic β-cell maturation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.18.553818v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrating Gaze, image analysis, and body tracking: Foothold selection during locomotion. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.18.553818v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Relatively little is known about the way vision is used to guide locomotion in the natural world. What visual features are used to choose paths in natural complex terrain? To answer this question, we measured eye and body movements while participants walked in natural outdoor environments. We incorporated measurements of the 3D terrain structure into our analyses and reconstructed the terrain along the walkers path, applying photogrammetry techniques to the eyetrackers scene camera videos. Combining these reconstructions with the walkers body movements, we demonstrate that walkers take terrain structure into account when selecting paths through an environment. We find that they change direction to avoid taking steeper steps that involve large height changes, instead of choosing more circuitous, relatively flat paths. Our data suggest walkers plan the location of individual footholds and plan ahead to select flatter paths. These results provide evidence that locomotor behavior in natural environments is controlled by decision mechanisms that account for multiple factors, including sensory and motor information, costs, and path planning.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Muller, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panfili, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matthis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonnen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayhoe, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.18.553818</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrating Gaze, image analysis, and body tracking: Foothold selection during locomotion.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.18.553936v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Longevity Bottlenecks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.18.553936v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The longevity field has received an influx of capital and talent over the past 5 years, but it is unclear where directing these resources would result in the biggest positive impact. We aimed to establish a systematic, rigorous and unbiased way to identify the areas where increased investment would accelerate progress across the whole longevity field the most. To do so, we surveyed [~]400 participants across various sectors of longevity, asking them to 1) identify the major bottlenecks they are experiencing, 2) list their most needed solution, and 3) rate the potential efficacy and barriers to development of various aging intervention strategies. We built a classification system of Bottlenecks and Solutions based on grouping related answers and found the most frequently listed bottlenecks to be 1) lack of validated aging biomarkers; 2) an overall lack of funding; and 3) lack of good models for aging studies. Surprisingly, the most wanted solution was greater availability of large public datasets. Indeed, a common theme across all answers was the need for a new data-centric structure of scientific research, where large datasets are routinely gathered and made available, access walls are removed, protocols are standardized, negative and unpublished data are shared, and AI systems are released on the data for automated discovery. Finally, a lack of regulatory clarity was listed as the biggest barrier to development across all interventions, whereas cellular reprogramming, organ replacement, and genetic medicine (gene therapies and gene editing) were perceived as the intervention strategies with the highest potential for increasing healthy lifespan. We provide these data as a resource for funding agencies, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and newcomers to the field as a means to identify high impact areas to fund and work on.

Key takeawaysO_LI395 Participants were surveyed for their biggest bottlenecks and most needed solutions
C_LIO_LITop Bottlenecks: lack of Validated Biomarkers; Overall lack of Funding and Slow & Expensive Models.
C_LIO_LITop proposed Solutions: more Public Datasets; improved Regulatory Path; and Overall More Funding.
C_LIO_LIBottlenecks and Solutions vary substantially across industry areas.
C_LIO_LIRapamycin and calorie restriction are perceived as the most efficacious interventions in the near term.
C_LIO_LISomatic reprogramming, organ replacement, and genetic medicine are perceived as the most efficacious interventions in the long term (25 years).
C_LIO_LISirtuin and NAD targeting therapies are seen as the least efficacious interventions in all time-frames.
C_LIO_LIAcross all interventions, Regulatory Issues are perceived as the most severely inhibiting factor in the development of the intervention.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Florea, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamalainen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seebold, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murray, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colville, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ingham, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kantelal, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Sicilia, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.18.553936</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Longevity Bottlenecks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.28.553855v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
TESOGENASE, An Engineered Nuclease Editor for Enhanced Targeted Genome Integration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.28.553855v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Summary/AbstractNon-viral DNA donor template has been widely used for targeted genomic integration by homologous recombination (HR). This process has become more efficient with RNA guided endonuclease editor system such as CRISPR/Cas9. Circular single stranded DNA (cssDNA) has been harnessed previously as a genome engineering catalyst (GATALYST) for efficient and safe targeted gene knock-in. However, the engineering efficiency is bottlenecked by the nucleoplasm trafficking and genomic tethering of cssDNA donor, especially for extra-large transgene integration. Here we developed enGager, enhanced GATALYST associated genome editor system by fusion of nucleus localization signal (NLS) peptide tagged Cas9 with various single stranded DNA binding protein modules through a GFP reporter Knock-in screening. The enGager system assembles an integrative genome integration machinery by forming tripartite complex for engineered nuclease editors, sgRNA and ssDNA donors, thereby facilitate the nucleus trafficking of DNA donors and increase their active local concentration at the targeted genomic site. When applied for genome integration with cssDNA donor templates to diverse genomic loci in various cell types, these enGagers outperform unfused editors. The enhancement of integration efficiency ranges from 1.5- to more than 6-fold, with the effect being more prominent for > 4Kb transgene knock-in in primary cells. We further demonstrated that enGager mediated enhancement for genome integration is ssDNA, but less dsDNA dependent. Using one of the mini-enGagers, we demonstrated large chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) transgene integration in primary T cells with exceptional efficiency and anti-tumor function. These tripartite editors with ssDNA optimized genome engineering system (TESOGENASETM) add a set of novel endonuclease editors into the gene-editing toolbox for potential cell and gene therapeutic development based on ssDNA mediated non-viral genome engineering.

HighlightO_LIA reporter Knock-in screening establishes enGager system to identify TESOGENASE editor to improving ssDNA mediated genome integration
C_LIO_LIMini-TESOGENASEs developed by fusing Cas9 nuclease with novel ssDNA binding motifs
C_LIO_LImRNA mini-TESOGENASEs enhance targeted genome integration via various non-viral delivery approaches
C_LIO_LIEfficient functional CAR-T cell engineering by mini-TESOGENASE
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nam, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Majumdar, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Starzyk, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.28.553855</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[TESOGENASE, An Engineered Nuclease Editor for Enhanced Targeted Genome Integration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.556731v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Local read haplotagging enables accurate long-read small variant calling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.556731v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Long-read sequencing technology has enabled variant detection in difficult-to-map regions of the genome and enabled rapid genetic diagnosis in clinical settings. Rapidly evolving third-generation sequencing platforms like Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) and Oxford nanopore technologies (ONT) are introducing newer platforms and data types. It has been demonstrated that variant calling methods based on deep neural networks can use local haplotyping information with long-reads to improve the genotyping accuracy. However, using local haplotype information creates an overhead as variant calling needs to be performed multiple times which ultimately makes it difficult to extend to new data types and platforms as they get introduced. In this work, we have developed a local haplotype approximate method that enables state-of-the-art variant calling performance with multiple sequencing platforms including PacBio Revio system, ONT R10.4 simplex and duplex data. This addition of local haplotype approximation makes DeepVariant a universal variant calling solution for long-read sequencing platforms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kolesnikov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cook, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nattestad, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ashley, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gorzynski, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goenka, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNulty, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miga, K. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paten, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, P.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carroll, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shafin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.07.556731</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Local read haplotagging enables accurate long-read small variant calling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.557249v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Programmed Cell Death Modifies Neural Circuits and Tunes Intrinsic Behavior 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.11.557249v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Programmed cell death (PCD) is a common feature of animal development. During development of the C. elegans hermaphrodite, programmed cell death eliminates 131 cells in stereotyped positions in the cell lineage, mostly in neuronal lineages. Blocking cell death results in supernumerary "undead" neurons. We find that undead neurons can be wired into circuits, can display activity, and can modify specific behaviors. The two undead RIM-like neurons participate in the RIM-containing circuit that computes movement. The presence of these two extra neurons results in animals that initiate fewer reversals and lengthens the duration of those reversals that do occur. We describe additional behavioral alterations of cell-death mutants, including in locomotory turning angle and pharyngeal pumping. These findings indicate that physiological or evolutionary variations in PCD might reveal latent neuronal elements that the nervous system can incorporate to modify nervous system function and animal behavior.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kochersberger, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torkashvand, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baskoylu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sengupta, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koonce, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emerson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, N. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colon-Ramos, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flavell, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horvitz, H. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hammarlund, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.11.557249</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Programmed Cell Death Modifies Neural Circuits and Tunes Intrinsic Behavior]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.17.558110v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In vivo Imaging using Surface Enhanced Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SESORS): Balancing Sampling Frequency to Improve Overall Image Acquisition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.17.558110v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Background and RationaleIn the field of optical imaging, the ability to image tumors at depth with high selectivity and specificity remains a challenge. Surface enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) nanoparticles (NPs) can be employed as image contrast agents to specifically target cells in vivo, however, this technique typically requires time-intensive point-by-point acquisition of Raman spectra, thus hindering the real-time image acquisition desired for clinical applications. Moreover, traditional approaches involving Raman spectroscopy are limited in their inability to probe through tissue depths of more than a few millimeters. Here, we combine the use of "spatially offset Raman spectroscopy" (SORS) with that of SERRS in a technique known as "surface enhanced spatially offset resonance Raman spectroscopy" (SESORRS) to image deep-seated tumors in vivo. Additionally, by accounting for the laser spot size, we report an experimental SESORRS approach for detecting both the bulk tumor, subsequent delineation of tumor margins at high speed, and the identification of a deeper secondary region of interest with fewer measurements than are typically applied.

MethodsTo enhance light collection efficiency, four modifications were made to a previously described custom-built SORS system. Specifically, the following parameters were increased: (i) the numerical aperture (NA) of the lens, from 0.2 to 0.34; (ii) the working distance of the probe, from 9 mm to 40 mm; (iii) the NA of the fiber, from 0.2 to 0.34; and (iv) the fiber diameter, from 100 {micro}m to 400 {micro}m. To calculate the sampling frequency, which refers to the number of data point spectra obtained for each image, we considered the laser spot size of the elliptical beam (6 x 4 mm). Using SERRS contrast agents, we performed in vivo SESORRS imaging on a GL261-Luc mouse model of glioblastoma at four distinct sampling frequencies: par-sampling frequency (12 data points collected), and over-frequency sampling by factors of 2 (35 data points collected), 5 (176 data points collected), and 10 (651 data points collected).

ResultsIn comparison to the previously reported SORS system, the modified SORS instrument showed a 300% improvement in signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). Glioblastomas were imaged in vivo using SESORRS in mice (n = 3) and tumors were confirmed using MRI and histopathology. The results demonstrate the ability to acquire distinct Raman spectra from deep-seated glioblastomas in mice through the skull using a low power density (6.5 mW/mm2) and 30-times shorter integration times than a previous report (0.5 s versus 15 s). The ability to map the whole head of the mouse and determine a specific region of interest using as few as 12 spectra (6 second total acquisition time) is achieved. Subsequent use of a higher sampling frequency demonstrates it is possible to delineate the tumor margins in the region of interest with greater certainty. In addition, SESORRS images indicate the emergence of a secondary tumor region deeper within the brain in agreement with MRI and H&E staining.

ConclusionIn comparison to traditional Raman imaging approaches, this approach enables improvements in the rapid detection of deep-seated tumors in vivo through depths of several millimeters due to improvements in SNR, spectral resolution, and depth acquisition. This approach offers an opportunity to navigate larger areas of tissues in shorter time frames than previously reported, identify regions of interest, and then image such area with greater resolution using a higher sampling frequency. Moreover, using a SESORRS approach, we demonstrate that it is possible to detect secondary, deeper-seated lesions through the intact skull.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nicolson, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andreiuk, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Donnell, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitley, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riepl, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burkhart, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Protti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rudder, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mabbott, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haigis, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.17.558110</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In vivo Imaging using Surface Enhanced Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SESORS): Balancing Sampling Frequency to Improve Overall Image Acquisition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.18.558214v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An Information-Theoretic Approach to Reward Rate Optimization in the Tradeoff Between Controlled and Automatic Processing in Neural Network Architectures 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.18.558214v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
This article introduces a quantitative approach to modeling the cost of control in a neural network architecture when it is required to execute one or more simultaneous tasks, and its relationship to automaticity. We begin by formalizing two forms of cost associated with a given level of performance: an intensity cost that quantifies how much information must be added to the input to achieve the desired response for a given task, that we treat as the contribution of control ; and an interaction cost that quantifies the degree to which performance is degraded as a result of interference between processes responsible for performing two or more tasks, that we treat as inversely related to automaticity. We develop a formal expression of the relationship between these two costs, and use this to derive the optimal control policy for a desired level of performance. We use that, in turn, to quantify the tradeoff between control and automaticity, and suggest how this can be used as a normative framework for understanding how people adjudicate between the benefits of control and automaticity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Petri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Musslick, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.18.558214</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An Information-Theoretic Approach to Reward Rate Optimization in the Tradeoff Between Controlled and Automatic Processing in Neural Network Architectures]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.18.558264v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ventromedial Frontoinsular Connectivity is Associated with Long-term Smoking Behavior Change in Aging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.18.558264v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A central question in the field of cognitive aging and behavioral neuroscience is what enables some individuals to successfully change their behavior more than others? Smoking is a significant risk factor for cognitive decline, particularly in vulnerable populations, including those who are at an elevated risk for Alzheimers disease (AD). Developing effective smoking reduction strategies is therefore a public health priority. The goal of the current study is to better understand the brain mechanisms underlying long-term smoking behavior change in cognitively normal, but at-risk, older adults. Neuroimaging and human lesional studies have implicated the insula and its functional network in subjective interoceptive awareness of cigarette craving and smoking-cue reactivity. We sought to characterize the extent to which anterior insular resting-state functional connectivity MRI predicted long-term smoking reduction (mean: 2.7 years, range 8 months - 4 years) using a seed-to-voxel approach. Twenty-three (18 women; 26% APOE4 carriers; 61.5 years, SD = 3.7) cognitively unimpaired older individuals who smoked cigarettes at their baseline visit and have a first-degree family history of AD (at least one parent or multiple siblings affected) were included from a prospective longitudinal cohort, PREVENT-AD (Pre-symptomatic Evaluation of Experimental or Novel Treatments for Alzheimer Disease) in the current study. We found that reduced long-term smoking behavior was associated with diminished functional connectivity between bilateral anterior insula and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). In a second pre-registered replication study within a larger, independent sample of one hundred and eighteen cognitively normal older adults who smoked cigarettes at baseline from the UK Biobank (73 women; 27.9 % APOE4 carriers; 60.3 years, SD = 2.7), we found that baseline diminished resting-state functional connectivity between anterior insula and vmPFC predicted long-term smoking reduction (mean 5.2 years; ranging from 3 years to 7 years). To our knowledge, this is the largest study to examine the neural substrates of long-term smoking cessation in human aging. Our results suggest that frontoinsular circuits may be a therapeutic target for smoking reduction and disease prevention in older adults at risk for AD.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Thovinakere, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noriega de la Colina, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ai, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walker, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baracchini, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tremblay-Mercier, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Villeneuve, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spreng, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geddes, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>The PREVENT-AD Research Group,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.18.558264</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ventromedial Frontoinsular Connectivity is Associated with Long-term Smoking Behavior Change in Aging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.18.558354v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A computational account of real-world attentional allocation based on visual gain fields 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.18.558354v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Coordination of goal-directed behaviour depends on the brains ability to recover the locations of relevant objects in the world. In humans, the visual system encodes the spatial organisation of sensory inputs, but neurons in early visual areas map objects according to their retinal positions, rather than where they are in the world. How the brain computes world-referenced spatial information across eye movements has been widely researched and debated. Here we tested whether shifts of covert attention are sufficiently precise in space and time to track an objects real-world location across eye movements. We found that observers attentional selectivity is remarkably precise, and is barely perturbed by the execution of saccades. Inspired by recent neurophysiological discoveries, we developed an observer model that rapidly estimates the real-world locations of objects and allocates attention within this reference frame. The model recapitulates the human data and provides a parsimonious explanation for previously reported phenomena in which observers allocate attention to task-irrelevant locations across eye movements. Our findings reveal that visual attention operates in real-world coordinates, which can be computed rapidly at the earliest stages of cortical processing.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Harrison, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stead, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wallis, T. S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mattingley, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.18.558354</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A computational account of real-world attentional allocation based on visual gain fields]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.21.558819v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
4D Mesoscale liquid model of nucleus resolves chromatin's radial organization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.21.558819v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent chromatin capture, imaging techniques, and polymer modeling advancements have dramatically enhanced our quantitative understanding of chromosomal folding. However, the dynamism inherent in genome architectures due to physical and biochemical forces and their impact on nuclear architecture and cellular functions remains elusive. While imaging techniques capable of probing the physical properties of chromatin in 4D are growing, there is a conspicuous lack of physics-based computational tools appropriate for revealing the underlying forces that shape nuclear architecture and dynamics. To this end, we have developed a multi-phase liquid model of the nucleus, which can resolve chromosomal territories, compartments, and nuclear lamina using a physics-based and data-informed free energy function. The model enables rapid hypothesis-driven prototyping of nuclear dynamics in 4D, thereby facilitating comparison with whole nucleus imaging experiments. As an application, we model the Drosophila nucleus spanning the interphase and map phase diagram of nuclear morphologies. We shed light on the interplay of adhesive and cohesive interactions within the nucleus, giving rise to distinct radial organization seen in conventional, inverted, and senescent nuclear architectures. The results also show the highly dynamic nature of the radial organization, the disruption of which leads to significant variability in domain coarsening dynamics and, consequently, variability of chromatin architecture. The model also highlights the impact of oblate nuclear geometry and heterochromatin sub-type interactions on the global chromatin architecture and local asymmetry of chromatin compartments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Laghmach, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Potoyan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.21.558819</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[4D Mesoscale liquid model of nucleus resolves chromatin's radial organization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.27.559723v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mechanical imbalance between normal and cancer cells drives epithelial defence against cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.27.559723v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cell competition in epithelial tissue eliminates transformed cells expressing activated oncoproteins to maintain epithelial homeostasis. Although the process is now understood to be of mechanochemical origin, direct mechanical characterization and associated biochemical underpinnings are lacking. Here, we employ tissue-scale stress and compressibility measurements and theoretical modeling to unveil a mechanical imbalance between normal and transformed cells, which drives cell competition. In the mouse intestinal epithelium and epithelial monolayer, transformed cells get compacted during competition. Stress microscopy reveals an emergent compressive stress at the transformed loci leading to this compaction. A cell-based self-propelled Voronoi model predicts that this compressive stress originates from a difference in the collective compressibility of the competing populations. A new collective compressibility measurement technique named gel compression microscopy then elucidates a two-fold higher compressibility of the transformed population than the normal population. Mechanistically, weakened cell-cell adhesions due to reduced junctional abundance of E-cadherin in the transformed cells render them collectively more compressible than normal cells. Taken together, our findings unveil a mechanical basis for epithelial homeostasis against oncogenic transformations with implications in epithelial defense against cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gupta, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kayal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pothapragada, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Senapati, H. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Devendran, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Das, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.27.559723</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mechanical imbalance between normal and cancer cells drives epithelial defence against cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.29.560148v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Microbially Driven Reversible Actuation and Color Changing Materials 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.29.560148v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A common feature of natural living systems that is underexplored in the field of engineered living materials (ELMs) is macroscale mechanical actuation, as driven by active cellular processes. Here we demonstrate an ELM wherein Escherichia coli drives the reversible swelling and de-swelling actuation of a pH-responsive hydrogel by producing or consuming acidic metabolites. We covalently incorporated a novel synthetic pH indicator dye into the hydrogel network that complements the hydrogel actuation with coordinated color change. Acid production or consumption is controlled by media composition and multiple hydrogel form factors are explored. This approach represents a new form of biologically driven actuation that could be compatible with a range of responsive hydrogel applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kuang, H. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonanno, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, W.-T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bower, D. Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pratt, V. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zerkowski, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scaperdas, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Young, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deravi, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.29.560148</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Microbially Driven Reversible Actuation and Color Changing Materials]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.01.560379v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
BBQ methods: Streamlined workflows for Bacterial Burden Quantification in infected cells by confocal microscopy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.01.560379v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Accurate quantification of bacterial burden within macrophages, termed Bacterial Burden Quantification (BBQ), is crucial for understanding host-pathogen interactions. Various methods have been employed, each with strengths and weaknesses. This article addresses limitations in existing techniques and introduces two novel automated methods for BBQ within macrophages based on confocal microscopy data analysis. The first method refines total fluorescence quantification by incorporating filtering steps to exclude uninfected cells, while the second method calculates total bacterial volume per cell to mitigate potential biases in fluorescence-based readouts. These workflows utilize PyImageJ and Cellpose software, providing reliable, unbiased, and rapid quantification of bacterial load. The proposed workflows were validated using Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and Mycobacterium tuberculosis models, demonstrating their effectiveness in accurately assessing bacterial burden. These automated workflows offer valuable tools for studying bacterial interactions within host cells and provide insights for various research applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Augenstreich, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shuster, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ling, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Briken, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.01.560379</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[BBQ methods: Streamlined workflows for Bacterial Burden Quantification in infected cells by confocal microscopy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.02.560369v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Controlling pericellular oxygen tension in cell culture reveals distinct breast cancer responses to low oxygen tensions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.02.560369v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Oxygen (O2) tension plays a key role in tissue function and pathophysiology. O2-controlled cell culture, in which the O2 concentration in an incubators gas phase is controlled, is an indispensable tool to study the role of O2 in vivo. For this technique, it is presumed that the incubator setpoint is equal to the O2 tension that cells experience (i.e., pericellular O2). We discovered that physioxic (5% O2) and hypoxic (1% O2) setpoints regularly induce anoxic (0.0% O2) pericellular tensions in both adherent and suspension cell cultures. Electron transport chain inhibition ablates this effect, indicating that cellular O2 consumption is the driving factor. RNA-seq revealed that primary human hepatocytes cultured in physioxia experience ischemia-reperfusion injury due to anoxic exposure followed by rapid reoxygenation. To better understand the relationship between incubator gas phase and pericellular O2 tensions, we developed a reaction-diffusion model that predicts pericellular O2 tension a priori. This model revealed that the effect of cellular O2 consumption is greatest in smaller volume culture vessels (e.g., 96-well plate). By controlling pericellular O2 tension in cell culture, we discovered that MCF7 cells have stronger glycolytic and glutamine metabolism responses in anoxia vs. hypoxia. MCF7 also expressed higher levels of HIF2A, CD73, NDUFA4L2, etc. and lower levels of HIF1A, CA9, VEGFA, etc. in response to hypoxia vs. anoxia. Proteomics revealed that 4T1 cells had an upregulated epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) response and downregulated reactive oxygen species (ROS) management, glycolysis, and fatty acid metabolism pathways in hypoxia vs. anoxia. Collectively, these results reveal that breast cancer cells respond non-monotonically to low O2, suggesting that anoxic cell culture is not suitable to model hypoxia. We demonstrate that controlling atmospheric O2 tension in cell culture incubators is insufficient to control O2 in cell culture and introduce the concept of pericellular O2-controlled cell culture.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rogers, Z. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colombani, T. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhatt, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nukovic, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woolston, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, C. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilkes, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bencherif, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.02.560369</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Controlling pericellular oxygen tension in cell culture reveals distinct breast cancer responses to low oxygen tensions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.03.560562v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identification of Determinants that Allow Maintenance of High-Level Fluoroquinolone Resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.03.560562v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acinetobacter baumannii is associated with multidrug resistant (MDR) infections in healthcare settings, with fluoroquinolones such as ciprofloxacin being currently ineffective. Clinical isolates largely harbor mutations in the GyrA and TopoIV fluoroquinolone targets, as well as mutations that increase expression of drug resistance-nodulation-division (RND) efflux pumps. Factors critical for maintaining fitness levels of pump overproducers are uncharacterized despite their prevalence in clinical isolates. We here identify proteins that contribute to the fitness of FQR strains overexpressing three known RND systems using high-density insertion mutagenesis. Overexpression of the AdeFGH efflux pump caused hypersensitization to defects in outer membrane homeostatic regulation, including lesions that reduced LOS biosynthesis and blocked production of the major A. baumannii porin. In contrast, AdeAB pump hyperexpression, in the absence of elevated adeC expression (the outer membrane component of the pump), was relatively tolerant to loss of these functions, consistent with the outer membrane protein being the primary disruptive component. Surprisingly, overexpression of proton-transporting efflux pumps had little impact on cytosolic pH, consistent with a compensatory response to pump activity. The most striking transcriptional changes were associated with AdeFGH pump overexpression, including the activation of the phenylacetate (PAA) degradation regulon. Disruption of the PAA pathway resulted in cytosolic acidification and defective expression of genes involved in protection from oxidative stress. These results indicate that RND efflux pump overproduction is compensated by maintenance of outer membrane integrity in A. baumannii to facilitate fitness of FQR isolates.

ImportanceAcinetobacter baumannii is a pathogen that often causes multidrug resistant (MDR) infections in healthcare settings, presenting a threat to the efficacy of known therapeutic interventions. Fluoroquinolones such as ciprofloxacin are currently ineffective against a majority of clinical A. baumannii isolates, many of which express pumps that remove this antibiotic class from within the bacterium. Three of these pumps can be found in most clinical isolates, with one of the three often hyperproduced at all times. In this study we identify proteins that are necessary for the fitness of pump hyperproducers. The identified proteins are necessary to stabilize the outer membrane and allow the cytoplasm to tolerate the accumulation of ions as a consequence of excess pump activity. These results point to strategies for developing therapies that combine known antibiotics with drugs that target proteins important for survival of strains hyperexpressing efflux pumps.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hamami, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huo, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castaneda, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bai, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Syal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ortiz-Martinez, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Opijnen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geisinger, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isberg, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.03.560562</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identification of Determinants that Allow Maintenance of High-Level Fluoroquinolone Resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.03.560682v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Characterization of Gαs and Gαolf activation by catechol and non-catechol dopamine D1 receptor agonists 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.03.560682v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The dopamine D1 receptor (D1R) couples to Gs and Golf and plays a crucial role in regulating voluntary movement and other cognitive functions, making it a potential therapeutic target for several neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as Parkinsons disease and schizophrenia. In the central nervous system, Gs is widely expressed in the cortex and Golf is predominantly found in the striatum. We used two different configurations of bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) assays and a fluorescence-based cyclic AMP (cAMP) production functional assay to test a series of tetracyclic catechol (dihydrexidine, methyl-dihydrexidine, doxanthrine) and non-catechol (tavapadon, PF-8294, PF-6142) D1R agonists for their activity at these G proteins. We discovered that these tetracyclic catechol compounds, PF-8294 and PF-6142 exerted full agonism when D1R coupled to Gs but partial agonism when D1R coupled to Golf. In contrast, tavapadon acted as a full agonist at Golf and a partial agonist at Gs. The effects of these compounds on the cortical and nigral electrophysiological events agree with their selectivity profiles. This suggests the possibility of achieving region-specific pharmacology and opens new directions for developing D1R drugs to treat relevant neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Semeano, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quach, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Inoue, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nichols, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yano, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.03.560682</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Characterization of Gαs and Gαolf activation by catechol and non-catechol dopamine D1 receptor agonists]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.06.560776v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Traumatic brain injury disrupts state-dependent functional cortical connectivity in a mouse model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.06.560776v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death in young people and can cause cognitive and motor dysfunction and disruptions in functional connectivity between brain regions. In human TBI patients and rodent models of TBI, functional connectivity is decreased after injury. Recovery of connectivity after TBI is associated with improved cognition and memory, suggesting an important link between connectivity and functional outcome. We examined widespread alterations in functional connectivity following TBI using simultaneous widefield mesoscale GCaMP7c calcium imaging and electrocorticography (ECoG) in mice injured using the controlled cortical impact (CCI) model of TBI. Combining CCI with widefield cortical imaging provides us with unprecedented access to characterize network connectivity changes throughout the entire injured cortex over time. Our data demonstrate that CCI profoundly disrupts functional connectivity immediately after injury, followed by partial recovery over 3 weeks. Examining discrete periods of locomotion and stillness reveals that CCI alters functional connectivity and reduces theta power only during periods of behavioral stillness. Together, these findings demonstrate that TBI causes dynamic, behavioral state-dependent changes in functional connectivity and ECoG activity across the cortex.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bottom-Tanzer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corella, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sommer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolanos, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murphy, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quinones, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heiney, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shtrahman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whalen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oren, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Higley, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cardin, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noubary, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armbruster, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dulla, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.06.560776</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Traumatic brain injury disrupts state-dependent functional cortical connectivity in a mouse model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.16.562353v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuroinflammation increases oxygen extraction in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.16.562353v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neuroinflammation, impaired metabolism, and hypoperfusion are fundamental pathological hallmarks of early Alzheimers disease (AD). Numerous studies have asserted a close association between neuroinflammation and disrupted cerebral energetics. During AD progression and other neurodegenerative disorders, a persistent state of chronic neuroinflammation reportedly exacerbates cytotoxicity and potentiates neuronal death. Here, we assessed the impact of a neuroinflammatory challenge on metabolic demand and microvascular hemodynamics in the somatosensory cortex of an AD mouse model. We utilized in vivo 2-photon microscopy and the phosphorescent oxygen sensor Oxyphor 2P to measure partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) and capillary red blood cell flux in cortical microvessels of awake mice. Intravascular pO2 and capillary RBC flux measurements were performed in 8-month-old APPswe/PS1dE9 mice and wildtype littermates on days 0, 7, and 14 of a 14-day period of lipopolysaccaride-induced neuroinflammation. Before the induced inflammatory challenge, AD mice demonstrated reduced metabolic demand but similar capillary red blood cell flux as their wild type counterparts. Neuroinflammation provoked significant reductions in cerebral intravascular oxygen levels and elevated oxygen extraction in both animal groups, without significantly altering red blood cell flux in capillaries. This study provides evidence that neuroinflammation alters cerebral oxygen demand at the early stages of AD without substantially altering vascular oxygen supply. The results will guide our understanding of neuroinflammations influence on neuroimaging biomarkers for early AD diagnosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cardenas-Rivera, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teitelbaum, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Birmingham, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alfadhel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yaseen, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.16.562353</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuroinflammation increases oxygen extraction in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.18.562989v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Biochemical and functional characterization of the p.A165T missense variant of mitochondrial amidoxime-reducing component 1 in HepG2 cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.18.562989v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent genome-wide association studies have identified a missense variant p.A165T in mitochondrial amidoxime-reducing component 1 (mARC1) that is strongly associated with protection from all-cause cirrhosis and improved prognosis in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The precise mechanism of this protective effect is unknown. Substitution of alanine 165 with threonine is predicted to affect mARC1 protein stability and to have deleterious effects on its function. To investigate the mechanism, we have generated a knock-in mutant mARC1 A165T in human hepatoma HepG2 cells, enabling characterization of protein subcellular distribution, stability, and biochemical functions of the mARC1 mutant protein expressed from its endogenous locus. Compared to wild-type (WT) mARC1, we found that the A165T mutant exhibits significant mislocalization outside of its traditional location anchored in the mitochondrial outer membrane and reduces protein stability, resulting in lower basal levels. We evaluated the involvement of the ubiquitin proteasome system in mARC1 A165T degradation and observed increased ubiquitination and faster degradation of the A165T variant. In addition, we have shown that HepG2 cells carrying the MTARC1 p.A165T variant exhibit lower N-reductive activity on exogenously-added amidoxime substrates in vitro. The data from these biochemical and functional assays suggest a mechanism by which the MTARC1 p.A165T variant abrogates enzyme function which may contribute to its protective effect in liver disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hou, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cecconie, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolaki, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brady, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gatto, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Day, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.18.562989</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Biochemical and functional characterization of the p.A165T missense variant of mitochondrial amidoxime-reducing component 1 in HepG2 cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.25.563971v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Power and reproducibility in the external validation of brain-phenotype predictions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.25.563971v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Identifying reproducible and generalizable brain-phenotype associations is a central goal of neuroimaging. Consistent with this goal, prediction frameworks evaluate brain-phenotype models in unseen data. Most prediction studies train and evaluate a model in the same dataset. However, external validation, or the evaluation of a model in an external dataset, provides a better assessment of robustness and generalizability. Despite the promise of external validation and calls for its usage, the statistical power of such studies has yet to be investigated. In this work, we ran over 60 million simulations across several datasets, phenotypes, and sample sizes to better understand how the sizes of the training and external datasets affect statistical power. We found that prior external validation studies used sample sizes prone to low power, which may lead to false negatives and effect size inflation. Furthermore, increases in the external sample size led to increased simulated power directly following theoretical power curves, whereas changes in the training dataset size offset the simulated power curves. Finally, we compared the performance of a model within a dataset to the external performance. The within-dataset performance was typically within r=0.2 of the cross-dataset performance, which could help decide how to power future external validation studies. Overall, our results illustrate the importance of considering the sample sizes of both the training and external datasets when performing external validation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rosenblatt, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tejavibulya, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camp, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Westwater, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noble, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scheinost, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.25.563971</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Power and reproducibility in the external validation of brain-phenotype predictions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.559969v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Transcriptomic network analysis of brain and bone reveals shared molecular mechanisms underlyingAlzheimer's Disease and related dementias and Osteoporosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.559969v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alzheimers disease and related dementias (ADRD) and Osteoporosis (OP) are two prevalent diseases of aging with numerous epidemiological associations, but the underlying molecular mechanisms contributing to this association are unknown. We used WGCNA (weighted gene co-expression network analysis) to develop transcriptomic networks in bone and brain tissue using two different studies to discover common molecular mechanisms. We used RNA-sequencing data from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex tissue of autopsied brains in 629 participants from ROSMAP (Religious Orders Study and the Memory and Aging Project), including a subset of 298 meeting criteria for inclusion in five ADRD categories and the full set in a secondary analysis, and RNA array data from transiliac bone in 84 participants from the Oslo study of postmenopausal women. After developing each network, we analyzed associations between modules (groups of co-expressed genes) with multiple bone and neurological traits, examined overlap in modules between networks, and performed pathway enrichment analysis to discover conserved mechanisms. We discovered three modules in ROSMAP that showed significant associations with ADRD and bone related traits and four modules in Oslo that showed significant associations with multiple bone outcomes. We found significant module overlap between the two networks, most notably among those modules linked to canonical Wnt signaling and skeletal tissue homeostasis and development. These results were preserved with a network from the full ROSMAP cohort (n=629), which included a broader spectrum of participants. Our results require validation in experimental studies but show support for Wnt signaling as an important driver of pathology in OP and ADRD. We additionally show a strong link between Dementia with Lewy bodies and bone outcomes. These results have translational significance in the development of novel treatments and biomarkers for both ADRD and OP.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nagarajan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laird, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ugochukwu, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reppe, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gautvik, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ross, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosen, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kiel, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Higginbotham, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seyfried, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lary, C. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.26.559969</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Transcriptomic network analysis of brain and bone reveals shared molecular mechanisms underlyingAlzheimer's Disease and related dementias and Osteoporosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.564108v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Expression of Filaments of the Geobacter Extracellular Cytochrome OmcS in Shewanella oneidensis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.564108v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The physiological role of Geobacter sulfurreducens extracellular cytochrome filaments is a matter of debate and the development of proposed electronic device applications of cytochrome filaments awaits methods for large-scale cytochrome nanowire production. Functional studies in Geobacter sulfurreducens are stymied by the broad diversity of redox-active proteins on the outer cell surface and the redundancy and plasticity of extracellular electron transport routes. G. sulfurreducens is a poor chassis for producing cytochrome nanowires for electronics because of its slow, anaerobic growth. Here we report that filaments of the G. sulfurreducens cytochrome OmcS can be heterologously expressed in Shewanella oneidensis. Multiple lines of evidence demonstrated that a strain of S. oneidensis, expressing the G. sulfurreducens OmcS gene on a plasmid, localized OmcS on the outer cell surface. Atomic force microscopy revealed filaments with the unique morphology of OmcS filaments emanating from cells. Electron transfer to OmcS appeared to require a functional outer-membrane porin-cytochrome conduit. The results suggest that S. oneidensis, which grows rapidly to high culture densities under aerobic conditions, may be a suitable for development of a chassis for producing cytochrome nanowires for electronics applications and may also be good model microbe for elucidating cytochrome filament function in anaerobic extracellular electron transfer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lin, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lovley, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.26.564108</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Expression of Filaments of the Geobacter Extracellular Cytochrome OmcS in Shewanella oneidensis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.564262v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Drug-Target-Interaction Prediction with Contrastive and Siamese Transformers. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.26.564262v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWAs machine learning (ML) becomes increasingly integrated into the drug development process, accurately predicting Drug-Target Interactions (DTI) becomes a necessity for pharmaceutical research. This prediction plays a crucial role in various aspects of drug development, including virtual screening, repurposing of drugs, and proactively identifying potential side effects. While Deep Learning has made significant progress in enhancing DTI prediction, challenges related to interpretability and consistent performance persist in the field. This study introduces two innovative methodologies that combine Generative Pretraining and Contrastive Learning to specialize Transformers for bio-chemical modeling. These systems are designed to best incorporate cross-attention, which enables a nuanced alignment of multi-representation embeddings. Our empirical evaluation will showcase the effectiveness and interpretability of this proposed framework. Through a series of experiments, we provide compelling evidence of its superior predictive accuracy and enhanced interpretability. The primary objective of this research is not only to contribute to the advancement of novel DTI prediction methods but also to promote greater transparency and reliability within the drug discovery pipeline.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ikechukwu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.26.564262</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Drug-Target-Interaction Prediction with Contrastive and Siamese Transformers.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.06.565891v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Regulation of chromatin transcription dynamics by DNA supercoiling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.06.565891v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcription has a mechanical component, as the translocation of the transcription machinery or RNA polymerase (RNAP) on DNA or chromatin is dynamically coupled to the chromatin torsion. This posits chromatin mechanics as a possible regulator of eukaryotic transcription, however, the modes and mechanisms of this regulation are elusive. Here, we first take a statistical mechanics approach to model the torsional response of topology-constrained chromatin. Our model recapitulates the experimentally observed weaker torsional rigidity of chromatin compared to bare DNA, and proposes structural transitions of nucleosomes into chirally distinct states as the driver of the contrasting torsional mechanics. Coupling chromatin mechanics with RNAP translocation in stochastic simulations, we reveal a complex interplay of DNA supercoiling and nucleosome dynamics in governing RNAP velocity. Nucleosomes play a dual role in controlling the transcription dynamics. The steric barrier aspect of nucleosomes in the gene body counteracts transcription via hindering RNAP motion, whereas the chiral transitions facilitate RNAP motion via driving a low restoring torque upon twisting the DNA. While nucleosomes with low dissociation rates are typically transcriptionally repressive, highly dynamic nucleosomes offer less of a steric barrier and enhance the transcription elongation dynamics of weakly transcribed genes via buffering DNA twist. We use the model to predict transcription-dependent levels of DNA supercoiling in segments of the budding yeast genome that are in accord with available experimental data. The model unveils a paradigm of DNA supercoiling-mediated interaction between genes and makes testable predictions that will guide experimental design.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Brahmachari, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tripathi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.06.565891</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Regulation of chromatin transcription dynamics by DNA supercoiling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.07.565473v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A high-density diffuse optical tomography dataset of naturalistic viewing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.07.565473v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Traditional laboratory tasks offer tight experimental control but lack the richness of our everyday human experience. As a result, many cognitive neuroscientists have been motivated to adopt experimental paradigms that are more natural, such as stories and movies. Here we describe data collected from 58 healthy adult participants (aged 18-76 years) who viewed 10 minutes of a movie (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, 1966). Most (36) participants viewed the clip more than once, resulting in 106 sessions of data. Cortical responses were mapped using high-density diffuse optical tomography (first-through fourth nearest neighbor separations of 1.3, 3.0, 3.9, and 4.7 cm), covering large portions of superficial occipital, temporal, parietal, and frontal lobes. Consistency of measured activity across subjects was quantified using intersubject correlation analysis. Data are provided in both channel format (SNIRF) and projected to standard space (NIfTI) using an atlas-based light model. These data are suitable for methods exploration as well as investigating a wide variety of cognitive phenomena.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sherafati, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bajracharya, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Speh, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munsi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, C.-H. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fishell, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hershey, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eggebrecht, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Culver, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peelle, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.07.565473</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A high-density diffuse optical tomography dataset of naturalistic viewing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.08.566026v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Whole genome assembly and annotation of the King Angelfish (Holacanthus passer) gives insight into the evolution of marine fishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.08.566026v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Holacanthus angelfishes are some of the most iconic marine fishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP). However, very limited genomic resources currently exist for the genus. In this study we: i) assembled and annotated the nuclear genome of the King Angelfish (Holacanthus passer), and ii) examined the demographic history of H. passer in the TEP. We generated 43.8 Gb of ONT and 97.3 Gb Illumina reads representing 75X and 167X coverage, respectively. The final genome assembly size was 583 Mb with a contig N50 of 5.7 Mb, which captured 97.5% complete Actinoterygii Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCOs). Repetitive elements account for 5.09% of the genome, and 33,889 protein-coding genes were predicted, of which 22,984 have been functionally annotated. Our demographic model suggests that population expansions of H. passer occurred prior to the last glacial maximum (LGM) and were more likely shaped by events associated with the closure of the Isthmus of Panama. This result is surprising, given that most rapid population expansions in both freshwater and marine organisms have been reported to occur globally after the LGM. Overall, this annotated genome assembly will serve as a resource to improve our understanding of the evolution of Holacanthus angelfishes while facilitating novel research into local adaptation, speciation, and introgression in marine fishes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gatins, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arias, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanchez, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bernardi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Leon, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.08.566026</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Whole genome assembly and annotation of the King Angelfish (Holacanthus passer) gives insight into the evolution of marine fishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.10.564582v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MITF regulates IDH1 and NNT and drives a transcriptional program protecting cutaneous melanoma from reactive oxygen species 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.10.564582v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) plays pivotal roles in melanocyte development, function, and melanoma pathogenesis. MITF amplification occurs in melanoma and has been associated with resistance to targeted therapies. Here, we show that MITF regulates a global antioxidant program that increases survival of melanoma cell lines by protecting the cells from reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced damage. In addition, this redox program is correlated with MITF expression in human melanoma cell lines and patient-derived melanoma samples. Using a zebrafish melanoma model, we show that MITF decreases ROS-mediated DNA damage in vivo. Some of the MITF target genes involved, such as IDH1 and NNT, are regulated through direct MITF binding to canonical enhancer box (E-BOX) sequences proximal to their promoters. Utilizing functional experiments, we demonstrate the role of MITF and its target genes in reducing cytosolic and mitochondrial ROS. Collectively, our data identify MITF as a significant driver of the cellular antioxidant state.

One Sentence SummaryMITF promote melanoma survival via increasing ROS tolerance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Roider, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lakatos, A. I. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McConnell, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kawakami, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsoi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Szabolcs, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ascsillan, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suita, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Igras, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lo, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hsiao, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lapides, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pal, D. M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lengyel, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Navarini, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okazaki, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iliopoulos, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nemeth, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graeber, T. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zon, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giese, R. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kemeny, L. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fisher, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.10.564582</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MITF regulates IDH1 and NNT and drives a transcriptional program protecting cutaneous melanoma from reactive oxygen species]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.11.566723v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Testing of putative antiseizure drugs in a preclinical Dravet syndrome zebrafish model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.11.566723v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Dravet syndrome (DS) is a severe genetic epilepsy primarily caused by de novo mutations in a voltage-activated sodium channel gene (SCN1A). Patients face life-threatening seizures that are largely resistant to available anti-seizure medications (ASM). Preclinical DS animal models are a valuable tool to identify candidate ASMs for these patients. Among these, scn1lab mutant zebrafish exhibiting spontaneous seizure-like activity are particularly amenable to large-scale drug screening. Prior screening in a scn1lab mutant zebrafish line generated using N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) identified valproate, stiripentol, and fenfluramine e.g., Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs with clinical application in the DS population. Successful phenotypic screening in scn1lab mutant zebrafish consists of two stages: (i) a locomotion-based assay measuring high-velocity convulsive swim behavior and (ii) an electrophysiology-based assay, using in vivo local field potential (LFP) recordings, to quantify electrographic seizure-like events. Using this strategy more than 3000 drug candidates have been screened in scn1lab zebrafish mutants. Here, we curated a list of nine additional anti-seizure drug candidates recently identified in preclinical models: 1-EBIO, AA43279, chlorzoxazone, donepezil, lisuride, mifepristone, pargyline, soticlestat and vorinostat. First-stage locomotion-based assays in scn1lab mutant zebrafish identified only 1-EBIO, chlorzoxazone and lisuride. However, second-stage LFP recording assays did not show significant suppression of spontaneous electrographic seizure activity for any of the nine anti-seizure drug candidates. Surprisingly, soticlestat induced frank electrographic seizure-like discharges in wild-type control zebrafish. Taken together, our results failed to replicate clear anti-seizure efficacy for these drug candidates highlighting a necessity for strict scientific standards in preclinical identification of ASMs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Whyte-Fagundes, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vance, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carroll, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Figueroa, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manukyan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baraban, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.11.566723</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Testing of putative antiseizure drugs in a preclinical Dravet syndrome zebrafish model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.17.567425v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeted micro-fiber arrays for measuring and manipulating localized multi-scale neural dynamics over large, deep brain volumes during behavior 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.17.567425v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neural population dynamics relevant for behavior vary over multiple spatial and temporal scales across 3-dimensional volumes. Current optical approaches lack the spatial coverage and resolution necessary to measure and manipulate naturally occurring patterns of large-scale, distributed dynamics within and across deep brain regions such as the striatum. We designed a new micro-fiber array and imaging approach capable of chronically measuring and optogenetically manipulating local dynamics across over 100 targeted locations simultaneously in head-fixed and freely moving mice. We developed a semi-automated micro-CT based strategy to precisely localize positions of each optical fiber. This highly-customizable approach enables investigation of multi-scale spatial and temporal patterns of cell-type and neurotransmitter specific signals over arbitrary 3-D volumes at a spatial resolution and coverage previously inaccessible. We applied this method to resolve rapid dopamine release dynamics across the striatum volume which revealed distinct, modality specific spatiotemporal patterns in response to salient sensory stimuli extending over millimeters of tissue. Targeted optogenetics through our fiber arrays enabled flexible control of neural signaling on multiple spatial scales, better matching endogenous signaling patterns, and spatial localization of behavioral function across large circuits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vu, M.-A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wen, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noggle, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monk, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bouabid, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mroz, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graham, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhuo, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Otchy, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tian, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davison, I. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boas, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howe, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.17.567425</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeted micro-fiber arrays for measuring and manipulating localized multi-scale neural dynamics over large, deep brain volumes during behavior]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.21.568140v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A novel, wave-shaped profile of germline selection of pathogenic mtDNA mutations is discovered by bypassing a classical statistical bias. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.21.568140v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The shift of the level of disease-causing mtDNA mutations (heteroplasmy) from mother to child is typically negatively correlated with the mothers heteroplasmy (Hm). In other words, mothers with low Hm tend to have children with a higher mutation level (Hch) than their own. In contrast, mothers with high Hm typically see a decrease in heteroplasmy in their children. This trend has been commonly interpreted as a result of a descending germline selection profile, i.e., positive selection at low Hm, gradually turning negative at high Hm. Here we demonstrate, however, that the negative correlation is mostly driven by RTM, or  Regression To the Mean, a classical statistical bias. We further show that RTM can be nullified by using the average between the mothers and childs heteroplasmy, as a new variable, instead of the commonly used mothers heteroplasmy in blood. Additionally, we demonstrate that mother/child average is a better approximation of the actual germline heteroplasmy. Moreover, the elimination of RTM revealed a previously hidden wave-shaped HS-profile (positive mother-to-child shift at intermediate average mother-child heteroplasmy, decreasing towards high and low average heteroplasmy). In confirmation of this finding, we show that simulations that involve both wave-shaped HS-profile and RTM, reproduce the observed patterns of inheritance of mtDNA mutations in unprecedented detail. From the health care perspective, the uncovering of the wave-shaped HS-profile (and the removal of the RTM bias) are crucial for families affected by mtDNA disease. From the fundamental perspective, the wave- shaped profile offers a novel understanding of the dynamics of mtDNA in the germline and a novel potential mechanism that prevents the spread of detrimental mtDNA mutations in the population.

SignificanceFrom the clinical perspective, the existence of wave-shaped selection may improve predictions and decisions for families affected by mtDNA diseases. From the fundamental perspective, it provides insight into the dynamics of general mtDNA mutations in the germline and in the population, as long as they follow wave-shaped selection profile. In Fig. 1, blue and red arrows represent the direction of expected changes of the heteroplasmy in a lineage with time/generations. With wave- shaped selection (Fig. 1B), a great majority of nascent low- fraction mutations are expected to converge back to zero and vanish. However, due to random intracellular genetic drift, some mutations will, occasionally, expand and enter the range of positive selection. Then they will be expanded by the selection to higher, detrimental levels, and become prone to downstream removal via death of highly mutated germ cells or inability of highly sick individuals to continue their lineage. In this way, the wave-shaped selection may help to prevent the spread of detrimental mutations in the population and in the species. In contrast, if the descending selection profile (Fig. 1A) was in effect, the nascent low heteroplasmy detrimental mutations would have been pushed to intermediate heteroplasmy levels where they will stay longer in  hidden disease carriers enabling effective spread of mutation in the population.

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=192 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/568140v2_fig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (41K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1142cc0org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@186002aorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@74d176org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@163ca6c_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG O_FLOATNOFigure 1.C_FLOATNO (Graphic Summary) Pathogenic mtDNA mutations that cause a host of devastating inherited diseases are usually thought to follow an intriguing inheritance trend: Mothers with low levels of mutation (called mother heteroplasmy, Hm) tend to bear children with higher child heteroplasmy (Hch) then their own which constitutes positive Heteroplasmy Shift (HS=Hch-Hm). In contrast, mothers with high heteroplasmy Hm bear children with lower heteroplasmy Hc (negative HS).

C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cote-LHeureux, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleischmann, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vyshedskiy, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Braverman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pickett, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tilly, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turnbull, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.21.568140</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A novel, wave-shaped profile of germline selection of pathogenic mtDNA mutations is discovered by bypassing a classical statistical bias.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.22.568295v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Discovery of a novel MarR-type transcriptional regulator that controls cell death in Bacillus subtilis biofilms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.22.568295v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pulcherriminic acid (PA) is a cyclic-L-leu-L-leu di-peptide produced by Bacillus subtilis during biofilm formation. When secreted, PA strongly chelates extracellular iron and forms a reddish- brown pigment, pulcherrimin. Production of pulcherriminic acid and formation of pulcherrimin modulate iron homeostasis in B. subtilis. Pulcherriminic acid also functions as an antioxidant to protect cells from increasing oxidative stress during biofilm formation. We previously showed that PA is involved in gene regulation, differentially regulating hundreds of genes in B. subtilis. One of the strongly upregulated genes by PA is yhjH, encoding a putative MarR-type transcription repressor. In this study, we characterized the regulation of the yhjH gene by PA, by PchR, a known transcription repressor for PA biosynthesis, and by YhjH itself. We also found that high expression of yhjH triggers rapid cell lysis in B. subtilis. Results from RNA-seq suggest that YhjH differentially regulates about 180 genes, among which there is a significant number of prophage genes. Lastly, we propose that YhjH be re-named as PcdR, for "pulcherriminic acid cell death regulator".
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McClennen, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Angelini, L. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fox, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godoy, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.22.568295</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Discovery of a novel MarR-type transcriptional regulator that controls cell death in Bacillus subtilis biofilms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.27.568927v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Massively parallel sample preparation for multiplexed single-cell proteomics using nPOP 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.27.568927v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Single-cell proteomics by mass spectrometry (MS) allows quantifying proteins with high specificity and sensitivity. To increase its throughput, we developed nPOP, a method for parallel preparation of thousands of single cells in nanoliter volume droplets deposited on glass slides. Here, we describe its protocol with emphasis on its flexibility to prepare samples for different multiplexed MS methods. An implementation with plexDIA demonstrates accurate quantification of about 3,000 - 3,700 proteins per human cell. The protocol is implemented on the CellenONE instrument and uses readily available consumables, which should facilitate broad adoption. nPOP can be applied to all samples that can be processed to a single-cell suspension. It takes 1 or 2 days to prepare over 3,000 single cells. We provide metrics and software for quality control that can support the robust scaling of nPOP to higher plex reagents for achieving reliable high-throughput single-cell protein analysis.



O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=48 SRC="FIGDIR/small/568927v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@c82330org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@17e5f2forg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@19b200borg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@154e336_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koury, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cantlon, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.27.568927</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Massively parallel sample preparation for multiplexed single-cell proteomics using nPOP]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.30.569300v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Engineered Bacillus subtilis as oral probiotics to target circulating lactic acid 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.30.569300v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Elevated lactate concentrations are implicated in various acute and chronic diseases such as sepsis and mitochondrial dysfunction, respectively. Conversely, ineffective lactate clearance is associated with poor clinical prognoses and high mortality in these diseases. While several groups have proposed using small molecule inhibitors and enzyme replacement to reduce circulating lactate, there are few practical and effective ways to manage this condition. Recent evidence suggests that lactate is exchanged between systemic circulation and the gut, allowing bidirectional modulation between the gut microbiota and peripheral tissues. Inspired by these findings, this work seeks to engineer spore-forming probiotic B. subtilis strains to enable intestinal delivery of lactate oxidase as a therapeutic enzyme. After strain optimization, we showed that oral administration of engineered B. subtilis spores to the gut of mice reduced elevations in blood lactate in two different mouse models involving exogenous challenge or pharmacologic perturbation without disrupting gut microbiota composition, liver function, or immune homeostasis. Taken together, through the oral delivery of engineered probiotic spores to the gastrointestinal tract, our proof-of-concept study offers a practical strategy to aid in the management of disease states with elevated blood lactate and provides a new approach to  knocking down circulating metabolites to help understand their roles in host physiological and pathological processes.

Significance StatementThis study pioneers the use of engineered Bacillus subtilis spores as an oral probiotic therapy to enhance the clearance of elevated blood lactate, a condition linked to severe health issues like sepsis and metabolic disorders. By genetically modifying these spores to deliver therapeutic enzymes directly to the gut, we demonstrated a practical, effective method to modulate systemic lactate levels. This approach leverages the natural exchange between the gut microbiota and systemic circulation, offering a new strategy for managing diseases associated with lactate dysregulation. The safety and efficacy of this method were validated in mouse models, providing a foundation for future clinical applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutchinson, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crane, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.30.569300</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Engineered Bacillus subtilis as oral probiotics to target circulating lactic acid]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.02.569722v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Biolearn, an open-source library for biomarkers of aging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.02.569722v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Aging biomarkers are essential for understanding and quantifying the aging process and developing targeted longevity interventions. However, validation of these tools has been hindered by the lack of standardized approaches for cross-population validation, disparate biomarker designs, and inconsistencies in dataset structures. To address these challenges, we developed Biolearn, an open-source library that provides a unified framework for the curation, harmonization, and systematic evaluation of aging biomarkers. Leveraging Biolearn, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of various aging biomarkers across multiple datasets. Our systematic approach involved three key steps: (1) harmonizing existing and novel aging biomarkers in standardized formats; (2) unifying public datasets to ensure coherent structuring and formatting; and (3) applying computational methodologies to assess the harmonized biomarkers against the unified datasets. This evaluation yielded valuable insights into the performance, robustness, and generalizability of aging biomarkers across different populations and datasets. The Biolearn python library, which forms the foundation of this systematic evaluation, is freely available at https://Bio-Learn.github.io. Our work establishes a unified framework for the curation and evaluation of aging biomarkers, paving the way for more efficient and effective clinical validation and application in the field of longevity research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ying, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paulson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perez-Guevara, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emamifar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casas Martinez, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kwon, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poganik, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moqri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gladyshev, V. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.02.569722</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Biolearn, an open-source library for biomarkers of aging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.04.569913v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Higher-order connectomics of human brain function reveals local topological signatures of task decoding, individual identification, and behavior 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.04.569913v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Traditional models of human brain activity often represent it as a network of pairwise interactions between brain regions. Going beyond this limitation, recent approaches have been proposed to infer higher-order interactions from temporal brain signals involving three or more regions. However, to this day it remains unclear whether methods based on inferred higher-order interactions outperform traditional pairwise ones for the analysis of fMRI data. To address this question, we conducted a comprehensive analysis using fMRI time series of 100 unrelated subjects from the Human Connectome Project. We show that higher-order approaches greatly enhance our ability to decode dynamically between various tasks, to improve the individual identification of unimodal and transmodal functional subsystems, and to strengthen significantly the associations between brain activity and behavior. Overall, our approach sheds new light on the higher-order organization of fMRI time series, improving the characterization of dynamic group dependencies in rest and tasks, and revealing a vast space of unexplored structures within human functional brain data, which may remain hidden when using traditional pairwise approaches.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Santoro, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Battiston, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lucas, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amico, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.04.569913</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Higher-order connectomics of human brain function reveals local topological signatures of task decoding, individual identification, and behavior]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.08.570826v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Unravelling the Mitochondrial Mutational Landscape in Chordates: damage-induced versus replication-induced signatures, their Etiologies, and dynamics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.08.570826v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
To elucidate the primary factors shaping mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutagenesis, we derived a comprehensive 192-component mtDNA mutational spectrum using 86,149 polymorphic synonymous mutations reconstructed from the CytB gene of 967 chordate species. The mtDNA spectrum analysis provided numerous findings on repair and mutation processes, breaking it down into three main signatures: (i) symmetrical, evenly distributed across both strands, mutations, induced by gamma DNA polymerase (about 50% of all mutations); (ii) asymmetrical, heavy-strand-specific, C>T mutations (about 30%); and (iii) asymmetrical, heavy-strand-specific A>G mutations, influenced by metabolic and age-specific factors (about 20%). We propose that both asymmetrical signatures are driven by single-strand specific damage coupled with inefficient base excision repair on the lagging (heavy) strand of mtDNA. Understanding the detailed mechanisms of this damage is crucial for developing strategies to reduce somatic mtDNA mutational load, which is vital for combating age-related diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Iliushchenko, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Efimenko, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mikhailova, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shamanskiy, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saparbaev, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazunin, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knorre, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunz, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Denisov, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fellay, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunbin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.08.570826</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Unravelling the Mitochondrial Mutational Landscape in Chordates: damage-induced versus replication-induced signatures, their Etiologies, and dynamics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.09.569632v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Post-Transcriptional Methylation of Mitochondrial-tRNA Differentially Contributes to Mitochondrial Pathology 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.09.569632v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Human mitochondrial tRNAs (mt-tRNAs), critical for mitochondrial biogenesis, are frequently associated with pathogenic mutations. These mt-tRNAs have unusual sequence motifs and require post-transcriptional modifications to stabilize their fragile structures. However, whether a modification that stabilizes a wild-type (WT) mt-tRNA structure would also stabilize its pathogenic variants is unknown. Here we show that the N1-methylation of guanosine at position 9 (m1G9) of mt-Leu(UAA), while stabilizing the WT tRNA, has an opposite and destabilizing effect on variants associated with MELAS (mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes). This differential effect is further demonstrated by the observation that demethylation of m1G9, while damaging to the WT tRNA, is beneficial to the major pathogenic variant, improving its structure and activity. These results have new therapeutic implications, suggesting that the N1-methylation of mt-tRNAs at position 9 is a determinant of pathogenicity and that controlling the methylation level is an important modulator of mt-tRNA-associated diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maharjan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gamper, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yamaki, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henley, R. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheng, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suzuki, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suzuki, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Piccirilli, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seifert, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wallace, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, Y.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.09.569632</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Post-Transcriptional Methylation of Mitochondrial-tRNA Differentially Contributes to Mitochondrial Pathology]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.12.571349v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Breakage fusion bridge cycles drive high oncogene copy number, but not intratumoral genetic heterogeneity or rapid cancer genome change 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.12.571349v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Oncogene amplification is a major driver of cancer pathogenesis. Breakage fusion bridge (BFB) cycles, like extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA), can lead to high copy numbers of oncogenes, but their impact on intratumoral heterogeneity, treatment response, and patient survival are not well understood due to difficulty in detecting them by DNA sequencing. We describe a novel algorithm that detects and reconstructs BFB amplifications using optical genome maps (OGMs), called OM2BFB. OM2BFB showed high precision (>93%) and recall (92%) in detecting BFB amplifications in cancer cell lines, PDX models and primary tumors. OM-based comparisons demonstrated that short-read BFB detection using our AmpliconSuite (AS) toolkit also achieved high precision, albeit with reduced sensitivity. We detected 371 BFB events using whole genome sequences from 2,557 primary tumors and cancer lines. BFB amplifications were preferentially found in cervical, head and neck, lung, and esophageal cancers, but rarely in brain cancers. BFB amplified genes show lower variance of gene expression, with fewer options for regulatory rewiring relative to ecDNA amplified genes. BFB positive (BFB (+)) tumors showed reduced heterogeneity of amplicon structures, and delayed onset of resistance, relative to ecDNA(+) tumors. EcDNA and BFB amplifications represent contrasting mechanisms to increase the copy numbers of oncogene with markedly different characteristics that suggest different routes for intervention.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dehkordi, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, I. T.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ni, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luebeck, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prasad, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krockenberger, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chowdhury, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajkumar, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caplin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muliaditan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coruh, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turner, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teo, S. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pang, A. W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alexandrov, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chua, C. E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Furnari, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paulson, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Law, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yue, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DasGupta, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mischel, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bafna, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.12.571349</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Breakage fusion bridge cycles drive high oncogene copy number, but not intratumoral genetic heterogeneity or rapid cancer genome change]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.14.571673v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Electro-Osmotic Flow Generation via a Sticky Ion Action 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.14.571673v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Selective transport of ions through nanometer-sized pores is fundamental to cell biology and central to many technological processes such as water desalination and electrical energy storage. Conventional methods for generating ion selectivity include placement of fixed electrical charges at the inner surface of a nanopore through either point mutations in a protein pore or chemical treatment of a solid-state nanopore surface, with each nanopore type requiring a custom approach. Here, we describe a general method for transforming a nanoscale pore into a highly selective, anion-conducting channel capable of generating a giant electro-osmotic effect. Our molecular dynamics simulations and reverse potential measurements show that exposure of a biological nanopore to high concentrations of guanidinium chloride renders the nanopore surface positively charged due to transient binding of guanidinium cations to the protein surface. A comparison of four biological nanopores reveals the relationship between ion selectivity, nanopore shape, composition of the nanopore surface, and electro-osmotic flow. Remarkably, guanidinium ions are also found to produce anion selectivity and a giant electro-osmotic flow in solid-state nanopores via the same mechanism. Our sticky-ion approach to generate electro-osmotic flow can have numerous applications in controlling molecular transport at the nanoscale and for detection, identification, and sequencing of individual proteins.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mehrafrooz, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siwy, Z. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aksimentiev, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.14.571673</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Electro-Osmotic Flow Generation via a Sticky Ion Action]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.17.571949v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Implementation of an enriched membrane protein carrier channel for enhanced detection of membrane proteins in mass spectrometry-based thermal stability assays 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.17.571949v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In this work, we developed a membrane-enriched stable isotope isobaric-labeled carrier channel (meSIILCC) for mass spectrometry-based thermal stability assay (MS-TSA). A proof-of-concept study demonstrated that the meSIILCC method could modestly improve membrane protein (MP) detection in MS-TSA experiments. An enhancement of 10% in identifications of membrane-proteins was observed in the meSIILCC group. Hydrophobicity analysis of the identified and quantified peptides using the grand average of hydropathy index confirmed the meSIILCC approach enriched for peptides of higher hydrophobicity characteristic of membrane-associated proteins.

To further improve meSIILCC, four membrane-protein enrichment approaches were compared. Using the selected and optimized workflow that utilized isobaric labeling-mass spectrometry, 8,662 protein groups were quantitatively characterized and then annotated based on their subcellular localization. The corresponding reporter ion intensities were used to construct a heatmap, which revealed an increased representation of proteins corresponding to the "plasma membrane" gene ontology term.

In a separate DMSO-only MS-TSA experiment, the optimally performing meSIILCC was added at 10-fold the protein content of the lowest heated aliquot from the MS-TSA, and isotope interference was found to be the highest in the 134N channel, while to a much lesser degree in other channels that were left empty.

To further assess the performance of meSIILCC in the DMSO-only MS-TSA experiment, an over-representation analysis was performed, which demonstrated that proteins exclusive to the meSIILCC group had more than a five-fold increase in gene ontology cellular component terms related to the "membrane" term.

We found 496 proteins from the DMSO-only MS-TSA experiment, which were identified across all replicates and shared between the meSIILCC and control that were annotated with "plasma membrane." A close to 28% increase in the set corresponding to unique peptides was realized, using the meSIILCC approach, with a median value of 6.3 peptides per protein, compared to 4.7 in the control.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Phaneuf, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ivanov, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.17.571949</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Implementation of an enriched membrane protein carrier channel for enhanced detection of membrane proteins in mass spectrometry-based thermal stability assays]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.18.572223v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Impact of the clinically approved BTK inhibitors on the conformation of full-length BTK and analysis of the development of BTK resistance mutations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.18.572223v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Inhibition of Brutons tyrosine kinase (BTK) has proven to be highly effective in the treatment of B-cell malignancies such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), autoimmune disorders and multiple sclerosis. Since the approval of the first BTK inhibitor (BTKi), Ibrutinib, several other inhibitors including Acalabrutinib, Zanubrutinib, Tirabrutinib and Pirtobrutinib have been clinically approved. All are covalent active site inhibitors, with the exception of the reversible active site inhibitor Pirtobrutinib. The large number of available inhibitors for the BTK target creates challenges in choosing the most appropriate BTKi for treatment. Side-by-side comparisons in CLL have shown that different inhibitors may differ in their treatment efficacy. Moreover, the nature of the resistance mutations that arise in patients appears to depend on the specific BTKi administered. We have previously shown that Ibrutinib binding to the kinase active site causes unanticipated long-range effects on the global conformation of BTK (Joseph, R.E., et al., 2020, https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.60470). Here we show that binding of each of the five approved BTKi to the kinase active site brings about distinct allosteric changes that alter the conformational equilibrium of full-length BTK. Additionally, we provide an explanation for the resistance mutation bias observed in CLL patients treated with different BTKi and characterize the mechanism of action of two common resistance mutations: BTK T474I and L528W.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Joseph, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jayne, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Britton, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fulton, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dyer, M. J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andreotti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.18.572223</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Impact of the clinically approved BTK inhibitors on the conformation of full-length BTK and analysis of the development of BTK resistance mutations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.21.572913v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dynamics of single-cell protein covariation during epithelial-mesenchymal transition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.21.572913v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Physiological processes, such as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), are mediated by changes in protein interactions. These changes may be better reflected in protein covariation within cellular cluster than in the temporal dynamics of cluster-average protein abundance. To explore this possibility, we quantified proteins in single human cells undergoing EMT. Covariation analysis of the data revealed that functionally coherent protein clusters dynamically changed their protein-protein correlations without concomitant changes in cluster-average protein abundance. These dynamics of protein-protein correlations were monotonic in time and delineated protein modules functioning in actin cytoskeleton organization, energy metabolism and protein transport. These protein modules are defined by protein covariation within the same time point and cluster and thus reflect biological regulation masked by the cluster-average protein dynamics. Thus, protein correlation dynamics across single cells offer a window into protein regulation during physiological transitions.

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=132 SRC="FIGDIR/small/572913v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@84ba15org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1d4c753org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@6a4210org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@174fa1_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conover, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asthagiri, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.21.572913</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dynamics of single-cell protein covariation during epithelial-mesenchymal transition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.22.573062v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Homological landscape of human brain functional sub-circuits 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.22.573062v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Human whole-brain functional connectivity networks have been shown to exhibit both local/quasilocal (e.g., set of functional sub-circuits induced by node or edge attributes) and non-local (e.g., higher-order functional coordination patterns) properties. Nonetheless, the non-local properties of topological strata induced by local/quasilocal functional sub-circuits have yet to be addressed. To that end, we proposed a homological formalism that enables the quantification of higher-order characteristics of human brain functional sub-circuits. Our results indicated that each homological order uniquely unravels diverse, complementary properties of human brain functional sub-circuits. Noticeably, the H1 homological distance between rest and motor task were observed at both whole-brain and sub-circuit consolidated level which suggested the self-similarity property of human brain functional connectivity unraveled by homological kernel. Furthermore, at the whole-brain level, the rest-task differentiation was found to be most prominent between rest and different tasks at different homological orders: i) Emotion task (H0), ii) Motor task (H1), and iii) Working memory task (H2). At the functional sub-circuit level, the rest-task functional dichotomy of default mode network is found to be mostly prominent at the first and second homological scaffolds. Also at such scale, we found that the limbic network plays a significant role in homological reconfiguration across both task- and subject-domain which sheds light to subsequent investigations on the complex neuro-physiological role of such network. From a wider perspective, our formalism can be applied, beyond brain connectomics, to study non-localized coordination patterns of localized structures stretching across complex network fibers.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Duong-Tran, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaufmann, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garai, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amico, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaplan, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goni, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.22.573062</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Homological landscape of human brain functional sub-circuits]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.04.574095v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
FANCJ promotes PARP1 activity during DNA replication that is essential in BRCA1 deficient cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.04.574095v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Single-stranded DNA gaps are postulated to be fundamental to the mechanism of anti-cancer drugs. Gaining insights into their induction could therefore be pivotal for advancing therapeutic strategies. For poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi) to be effective, the presence of FANCJ helicase is required. However, the relationship between FANCJ dependent gaps and PARP1 catalytic inhibition or trapping--both linked to PARPi toxicity in BRCA deficient cells--is yet to be elucidated. Here, we find that the efficacy of PARPi is contingent on S-phase PARP1 activity, which is compromised in FANCJ deficient cells because PARP1, along with MSH2, is "sequestered" by G-quadruplexes. PARP1s replication activity is also diminished in cells missing a FANCJ-MLH1 interaction, but in such cells, depleting MSH2 can release sequestered PARP1, restoring PARPi-induced gaps and sensitivity. Our observations indicate that sequestered and trapped PARP1 are different chromatin-bound forms, with FANCJ loss increasing PARPi resistance in cells susceptible to canonical PARP1 trapping. However, in BRCA1 null cells, the loss of FANCJ mirrors the effects of PARP1 loss or inhibition, with the common detrimental factor being the loss of PARP1 activity during DNA replication, not trapping. These insights underline the crucial role of PARP1 activity during DNA replication in BRCA deficient cells and emphasize the importance of understanding drug mechanisms for enhancing precision medicine.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cong, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MacGilvary, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MacLeod, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calvo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nedergaard Kousholt, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Day, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cantor, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.04.574095</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[FANCJ promotes PARP1 activity during DNA replication that is essential in BRCA1 deficient cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.04.574119v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identification of essential genes that support fitness of Acinetobacter baumannii efflux pump overproducers in the presence of fluoroquinolone 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.04.574119v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Elevated expression of Resistance-Nodulation-Cell Division (RND) drug transporters is commonly observed in clinical isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii, a nosocomial pathogen associated with multidrug-resistant (MDR) infections. We describe here a CRISPRi platform directed toward identifying essential gene hypomorphs that preferentially change resistance to the fluoroquinolone antibiotic ciprofloxacin in RND pump overproducers. An sgRNA library including single and double nucleotide mutations directed against essential genes of A. baumannii was constructed and introduced into multiple strain backgrounds, allowing strain-specific, titratable knockdown efficiencies to be analyzed. Other than NusG depletions, there were few candidates in the absence of drug treatment that showed lowered fitness specifically in strains overexpressing the RND efflux pumps AdeAB, AdeIJK, or AdeFGH. In the presence of ciprofloxacin, the hypomorphs that caused hypersensitivity were predicted to result in outer membrane dysfunction, with the AdeFGH overproducer appearing particularly sensitive to such disruptions. Increased ciprofloxacin susceptibility in two pump hyper-expressers was observed after depletions of a monovalent cation-proton antiporter protein and a nucleoid-associated protein, the latter of which was necessary for pump hyper-activation. On the other hand, depletions of translation-associated proteins as well as components of the proton-pumping ATP synthase resulted in fitness benefits in the presence of the drug for at least two pump-overproducing strains. Therefore, pump overproduction exacerbated stress caused by defective outer membrane integrity, while the efficacy of drug resistance in efflux pump overproducers was enhanced by slowed translation or defects in the proton-pumping ATP synthase.

ImportanceAcinetobacter baumannii clinical isolates are increasingly multidrug-resistant, leaving patients with few effective treatment options. Many of these isolates are fluoroquinolone-resistant due to drug target mutations in the two major type II topoisomerases, as well as mutations that activate RND efflux pump expression. This work identifies essential gene products that support the fitness of efflux pump hyperexpressers during treatment with the fluoroquinolone antibiotic ciprofloxacin, most of which are involved in OM biogenesis. These findings suggest new strategies for combination therapy with currently available fluoroquinolones to sensitize and combat high-level resistant strains.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hamami, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huo, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neal, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neisewander, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geisinger, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isberg, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.04.574119</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identification of essential genes that support fitness of Acinetobacter baumannii efflux pump overproducers in the presence of fluoroquinolone]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.06.574477v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Negative allosteric modulation of cannabinoid CB1 receptor signaling suppresses opioid-mediated tolerance and withdrawal without blocking opioid antinociception 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.06.574477v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The direct blockade of CB1 cannabinoid receptors produces therapeutic effects as well as adverse side-effects that limit their clinical potential. CB1 negative allosteric modulators (NAMs) represent an indirect approach to decrease the affinity and/or efficacy of orthosteric cannabinoid ligands or endocannabinoids at CB1. We recently reported that GAT358, a CB1-NAM, blocked opioid-induced mesocorticolimbic dopamine release and reward via a CB1-allosteric mechanism of action. Whether a CB1-NAM dampens opioid-mediated therapeutic effects such as analgesia or alters other unwanted side-effects of opioids remain unknown. Here, we characterized the effects of GAT358 on nociceptive behaviors in the presence and absence of morphine. We examined the impact of GAT358 on formalin-evoked pain behavior and Fos protein expression, a marker of neuronal activation, in the lumbar dorsal horn. We also assessed the impact of GAT358 on morphine-induced slowing of colonic transit, tolerance, and withdrawal behaviors. GAT358 attenuated morphine antinociceptive tolerance without blocking acute antinociception. GAT358 also reduced morphine-induced slowing of colonic motility without impacting fecal boli production. GAT358 produced antinociception in the presence and absence of morphine in the formalin model of inflammatory nociception and reduced the number of formalin-evoked Fos protein-like immunoreactive cells in the lumbar spinal dorsal horn. Finally, GAT358 mitigated the somatic signs of naloxone-precipitated, but not spontaneous, opioid withdrawal following chronic morphine dosing in mice. Our results support the therapeutic potential of CB1-NAMs as novel drug candidates aimed at preserving opioid-mediated analgesia while preventing their unwanted side-effects. Our studies also uncover previously unrecognized antinociceptive properties associated with an arrestin-biased CB1-NAMs.

HighlightsO_LICB1 negative allosteric modulator (NAM) GAT358 attenuated morphine tolerance
C_LIO_LIGAT358 reduced morphine-induced slowing of colonic motility but not fecal production
C_LIO_LIGAT358 was antinociceptive for formalin pain alone and when combined with morphine
C_LIO_LIGAT358 reduced formalin-evoked Fos protein expression in the lumbar spinal cord
C_LIO_LIGAT358 mitigated naloxone precipitated withdrawal after chronic morphine dosing
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Iyer, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saberi, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pacheco, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fender Sizemore, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stockman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulkarni, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cantwell, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thakur, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hohmann, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.06.574477</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Negative allosteric modulation of cannabinoid CB1 receptor signaling suppresses opioid-mediated tolerance and withdrawal without blocking opioid antinociception]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.07.574547v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Linkers in bitopic agonists shape bias profile among transducers for the dopamine D2 and D3 receptors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.07.574547v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bitopic ligands bind both orthosteric and allosteric or secondary binding sites within the same receptor, often resulting in improvement of receptor selectivity, potency, and efficacy. In particular, for both agonists and antagonists of the dopamine D2 and D3 receptors (D2R and D3R), the primary therapeutic targets for several neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, bitopic ligand design has proved advantageous in achieving better pharmacological profiles in vitro. Although the two pharmacophores within a bitopic ligand are typically considered the main drivers of conformational change for a receptor, the role of the linker that connects the two has not yet been systematically studied for its relevance in receptor activity profiles.

Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of sumanirole and PF592,379-based indole-containing bitopic compounds in agonist activity at D2R and D3R, with a focus on linker chemical space and stereochemistry achieved through testing seven distinct chirally resolved linkers. The current study examines the structure activity relationships (SAR) of these linkers extensively, beyond the conventional level, by characterizing activation of all putative transducers over a 44 min time course. Our multiparametric analysis provides previously unappreciated clarity of linker-dependent effects, highlighting the utility of this applied comprehensive approach and the significance of linker type in the shaping of transducer bias profiles.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Semeano, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garland, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonifazi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, K. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Famiglietti, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jo, Y. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Battiti, F. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Newman, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yano, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.07.574547</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Linkers in bitopic agonists shape bias profile among transducers for the dopamine D2 and D3 receptors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.08.574720v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Metatranscriptomic analysis reveals synergistic activities of comammox and anammox bacteria in full-scale attached growth nitrogen removal system. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.08.574720v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
0-Leveraging comammox Nitrospira and anammox bacteria for shortcut nitrogen removal can drastically lower the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment facilities by decreasing aeration energy, carbon, alkalinity, and tank volume requirements while also potentially reducing nitrous oxide emissions. However, their co-occurrence as dominant nitrifying bacteria is rarely reported in full-scale wastewater treatment. As a result, there is poor understanding of how operational parameters, in particular dissolved oxygen, impact their activity and synergistic behavior. Here, we report the impact of dissolved oxygen concentration (DO = 2, 4, 6 mg/L) on the microbial communitys transcriptomic expression in a full-scale integrated fixed film activated sludge (IFAS) municipal wastewater treatment facility predominantly performed by comammox Nitrospira and anammox bacterial populations. 16S rRNA transcript compositions revealed anammox bacteria and Nitrospira were significantly more active in IFAS biofilms compared to suspended sludge biomass. In IFAS biofilms, anammox bacteria significantly increased hzo expression at lower dissolved oxygen concentrations and this increase was highly correlated with the amoA expression levels of comammox bacteria. Interestingly, the genes involved in nitrite oxidation by comammox bacteria were significantly more upregulated relative to the genes involved in ammonia oxidation with decreasing dissolved oxygen concentrations. Ultimately, our findings suggest that comammox Nitrospira supply anammox bacteria with nitrite via ammonia oxidation and that this synergistic behavior is dependent on dissolved oxygen concentrations.

SynopsisComammox bacteria differentially regulate ammonia and nitrite oxidation in response to dissolved oxygen concentration suggesting dissolved oxygen dependence of their synergistic nitrogen removal with anammox bacteria in IFAS biofilms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Johnston, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vilardi, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cotto, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sudarshan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bian, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klaus, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bachmann, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parsons, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bott, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.08.574720</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Metatranscriptomic analysis reveals synergistic activities of comammox and anammox bacteria in full-scale attached growth nitrogen removal system.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.09.574895v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Prevotella are major contributors of sialidases in the human vaginal microbiome. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.09.574895v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Elevated bacterial sialidase activity in the female genital tract is strongly associated with poor health outcomes including preterm birth and bacterial vaginosis. These negative effects may arise from sialidase-mediated degradation of the protective mucus layer in the cervicovaginal environment. Prior biochemical studies of vaginal bacterial sialidases have focused solely on the bacterial vaginosis-associated organism Gardnerella vaginalis. Despite their implications for sexual and reproductive health, sialidases from other vaginal bacteria have not been characterized. Here, we show that vaginal Prevotella species produce active sialidases that possess variable activity toward mucin. These sialidases are highly conserved across clades of Prevotella from different geographies, hinting at their importance globally. Finally, we find that Prevotella sialidases, including mucin-degrading enzymes from Prevotella timonensis, are highly prevalent and abundant in human vaginal metagenomes and metatranscriptomes, Together, our results identify Prevotella as a critical source of sialidases in the vaginal microbiome, improving our understanding of this detrimental bacterial activity.

Significance StatementSialidase activity in the vaginal microbiome is increased in bacterial vaginosis and strongly associated with other adverse health outcomes. Sialidase enzymes release sialic acid from host-derived glycans in the vaginal environment, altering their structures and functions. However, biochemical studies of vaginal bacterial sialidases have been limited to one genus, Gardnerella. In this work, we identify and characterize multiple active sialidase enzymes in vaginal bacteria of the genus Prevotella. We find that Prevotella sialidases are more prevalent and abundant in vaginal microbial communities than Gardnerella sialidases. Our work highlights Prevotella bacteria as an underappreciated source of sialidase activity with important implications for both our understanding of vaginal health and therapeutic development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pelayo, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hussain, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Werlang, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woolston, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ribbeck, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kwon, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balskus, E. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.09.574895</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Prevotella are major contributors of sialidases in the human vaginal microbiome.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.12.574651v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Normalized level set model for segmentation of low-contrast objects in 2- and 3- dimensional images 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.12.574651v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Analyses of biomedical images often rely on accurate segmentation of structures of interest. Traditional segmentation methods based on thresholding, watershed, fast marching, and level set perform well in high-contrast images containing structures of similar intensities. However, such methods can under-segment or miss entirely low-intensity objects on noisy backgrounds. Machine learning segmentation methods promise superior performance but require large training datasets of labeled images which are difficult to create, particularly in 3D. Here, we propose an algorithm based on the Local Binary Fitting (LBF) level set method, specifically designed to improve the segmentation of low-contrast structures.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Baig, M. M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stepanyants, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.12.574651</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Normalized level set model for segmentation of low-contrast objects in 2- and 3- dimensional images]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.16.575900v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Negative allosteric modulation of CB1 cannabinoid receptor signaling decreases intravenous morphine self-administration and relapse in mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.16.575900v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The endocannabinoid system interacts with the reward system to modulate responsiveness to natural reinforcers, as well as drugs of abuse. Previous preclinical studies suggested that direct blockade of CB1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1R) could be leveraged as a potential pharmacological approach to treat substance use disorder, but this strategy failed during clinical trials due to severe psychiatric side effects. Alternative strategies have emerged to circumvent the side effects of direct CB1 binding through the development of allosteric modulators. We hypothesized that pharmacological inhibition of CB1R signaling through negative allosteric modulation (NAM) would reduce the reinforcing properties of morphine and decrease opioid addictive behaviors. By employing i.v. self-administration in mice, we studied the effects of the CB1-biased NAM GAT358 on morphine intake, relapse-like behavior, and motivation to work for morphine infusions. Our data revealed that GAT358 reduced morphine infusion intake during the maintenance phase of morphine self-administration under fixed ratio 1 schedule of reinforcement. GAT358 decreased morphine-seeking behavior after forced abstinence. Moreover, GAT358 dose-dependently decreased the motivation to obtain morphine infusions in a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement. Strikingly, GAT358 did not affect the motivation to work for food rewards in an identical progressive ratio task, suggesting that the effect of GAT358 in decreasing opioid self-administration is reward specific. Furthermore, GAT58 did not produce motor ataxia in the rota-rod test. Our results suggest that CB1R NAMs reduced the reinforcing properties of morphine and could represent a viable therapeutic route to safely decrease opioid-addicted behaviors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Oliva, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kazi, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cantwell, L. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thakur, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crystal, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hohmann, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.16.575900</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Negative allosteric modulation of CB1 cannabinoid receptor signaling decreases intravenous morphine self-administration and relapse in mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.23.576916v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Brain-phenotype predictions can survive across diverse real-world data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.23.576916v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent work suggests that machine learning models predicting psychiatric treatment outcomes based on clinical data may fail when applied to unharmonized samples. Neuroimaging predictive models offer the opportunity to incorporate neurobiological information, which may be more robust to dataset shifts. Yet, among the minority of neuroimaging studies that undertake any form of external validation, there is a notable lack of attention to generalization across dataset-specific idiosyncrasies. Research settings, by design, remove the between-site variations that real-world and, eventually, clinical applications demand. Here, we rigorously test the ability of a range of predictive models to generalize across three diverse, unharmonized samples: the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (n=1291), the Healthy Brain Network (n=1110), and the Human Connectome Project in Development (n=428). These datasets have high inter-dataset heterogeneity, encompassing substantial variations in age distribution, sex, racial and ethnic minority representation, recruitment geography, clinical symptom burdens, fMRI tasks, sequences, and behavioral measures. We demonstrate that reproducible and generalizable brain-behavior associations can be realized across diverse dataset features with sample sizes in the hundreds. Results indicate the potential of functional connectivity-based predictive models to be robust despite substantial inter-dataset variability. Notably, for the HCPD and HBN datasets, the best predictions were not from training and testing in the same dataset (i.e., cross-validation) but across datasets. This result suggests that training on diverse data may improve prediction in specific cases. Overall, this work provides a critical foundation for future work evaluating the generalizability of neuroimaging predictive models in real-world scenarios and clinical settings.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Adkinson, B. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenblatt, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dadashkarimi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tejavibulya, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noble, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scheinost, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.23.576916</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Brain-phenotype predictions can survive across diverse real-world data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.29.577820v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Revealing brain network dynamics during the emotional state of suspense using topological data analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.29.577820v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWSuspense is an affective state ubiquitous in human life, from art to quotidian events. However, little is known about the behavior of large-scale brain networks during suspenseful experiences. To address this question, we examined the continuous brain responses of participants watching a suspenseful movie, along with reported levels of suspense from an independent set of viewers. We employ sliding window analysis and Pearson correlation to measure functional connectivity states over time. Then, we use Mapper, a topological data analysis tool, to obtain a graphical representation that captures the dynamical transitions of the brain across states; this representation enables the anchoring of the topological characteristics of the combinatorial object with the measured suspense. Our analysis revealed changes in functional connectivity within and between the salience, fronto-parietal, and default networks associated with suspense. In particular, the functional connectivity between the salience and fronto-parietal networks increased with the level of suspense. In contrast, the connections of both networks with the default network decreased. Together, our findings reveal specific dynamical changes in functional connectivity at the network level associated with variation in suspense, and suggest topological data analysis as a potentially powerful tool for studying dynamic brain networks.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Olave Herrera, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perea, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomez, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.29.577820</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Revealing brain network dynamics during the emotional state of suspense using topological data analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.29.577849v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multiplexed Short-wave Infrared Imaging Highlights Anatomical Structures in Mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.29.577849v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While multiplexed fluorescence imaging is frequently used for in vitro microscopy, extending the technique to whole animal imaging in vivo has remained challenging due to the attenuation and scattering of visible and traditional near infrared (NIR-I) wavelengths. Fluorescence imaging using short-wave infrared (SWIR, 1000 - 1700 nm, a.k.a. NIR-II) light enables deeper tissue penetration for preclinical imaging compared to previous methods due to reduced tissue scattering and minimal background autofluorescence in this optical window. Combining NIR-I excitation wavelengths with multiple distinct SWIR emission peaks presents a tremendous opportunity to distinguish multiple fluorophores with high precision for non-invasive, multiplexed anatomical imaging in small animal models. SWIR-emitting semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) with tunable emission peaks and optical stability have emerged as powerful contrast agents, but SWIR imaging demonstrations have yet to move beyond two-color imaging schemes. In this study, we engineered a set of three high quantum yield lead sulfide/cadmium sulfide (PbS/CdS) core/shell QDs with distinct SWIR emissions ranging from 1100 - 1550 nm and utilize these for simultaneous three-color imaging in mice. We first use QDs to non-invasively track lymphatic drainage, highlighting the detailed network of lymphatic vessels with high-resolution with a widefield imaging over a 2 hr period. We then perform multiplexed imaging with all three QDs to distinctly visualize the lymphatic system and spatially overlapping vasculature network. This work establishes optimized SWIR QDs for next-generation multiplexed preclinical imaging, moving beyond the capability of previous dual-labeling techniques. The capacity to discriminate several fluorescent labels through non-invasive NIR-I excitation and SWIR detection unlocks numerous opportunities for studies of disease progression, drug biodistribution, and cell trafficking dynamics in living organisms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhong, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saeboe, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dennis, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.29.577849</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multiplexed Short-wave Infrared Imaging Highlights Anatomical Structures in Mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.30.577973v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The limits of predicting maladaptation to future environments with genomic data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.30.577973v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Anthropogenically driven changes in land use and climate patterns pose unprecedented challenges to species persistence. To understand the extent of these impacts, genomic offset methods have been used to forecast maladaptation of natural populations to future environmental change. However, while their use has become increasingly common, little is known regarding their predictive performance across a wide array of realistic and challenging scenarios. Here, we evaluate four offset methods (Gradient Forests, the Risk-Of-Non-Adaptedness, redundancy analysis, and LFMM2) using an extensive set of simulated datasets that vary demography, adaptive architecture, and the number and spatial patterns of adaptive environments. For each dataset, we train models using either all, adaptive, or neutral marker sets and evaluate performance using in silico common gardens by correlating known fitness with projected offset. Using over 4,850,000 of such evaluations, we find that 1) method performance is largely due to the degree of local adaptation across the metapopulation (LA{Delta}SA), 2) adaptive marker sets provide minimal performance advantages, 3) within-landscape performance is variable across gardens and declines when offset models are trained using additional non-adaptive environments, and 4) despite (1), performance declines more rapidly in novel climates for metapopulations with higher LA{Delta}SA than lower LA{Delta}SA. We discuss the implications of these results for management, assisted gene flow, and assisted migration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lind, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.30.577973</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The limits of predicting maladaptation to future environments with genomic data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.30.578110v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Chronic Pod-Mod E-Cigarette Aerosol Exposure Induces Aortic Dysfunction in Hypercholesterolemic Mice: Role of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.30.578110v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveElectronic (e-)cigarettes are the most used tobacco product amongst youth, and adult smokers favor e-cigarettes over approved cessations aids. Despite the lower perceived harm of vaping compared to smoking, inhalation of e-cigarette aerosol elicits cardiovascular responses that may lead to permanent injury when repeated over time. We thus aimed to infer the long-term outcomes of vaping on the function and structure of the aorta and shed light on the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms.

Approach and ResultsWe exposed female hypercholesterolemic mice to either pod-mod e-cigarette aerosol or room air daily for 24 weeks. Chronic inhalation of e-cigarette aerosol triggered accumulation of inflam-matory signals systemically and within aortic tissues, as well as T lymphocyte accrual in the aortic wall. Reduced eNOS expression and enhanced ROS production following eNOS uncoupling and NADPH oxi-dase activation curbed nitric oxide availability in the aorta of mice exposed to e-cigarette aerosol, impairing the endothelium-dependent vasodilatation that regulates blood flow distribution. Inhalation of e-cigarette aerosol thickened and stiffened aortic tissues via collagen deposition and remodeling, hindering the storage of elastic energy and limiting the cyclic distensibility that enables the aorta to function as a pressure reservoir. These effects combined contributed to raising systolic and pulse pressure above control levels.

ConclusionsChronic inhalation of aerosol from pod-mod e-cigarettes promotes oxidative stress, inflammation, and fibrosis within aortic tissues, significantly impairing passive and vasoactive aortic functions. This evidence provides new insights on the biological processes that increase the risk for adverse cardio-vascular events as a result of pod-mod e-cigarette vaping.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Farra, Y. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilker, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rivera, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vlahos, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramkhelawon, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oakes, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bellini, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-02-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.30.578110</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Chronic Pod-Mod E-Cigarette Aerosol Exposure Induces Aortic Dysfunction in Hypercholesterolemic Mice: Role of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-02-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.31.578234v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mechanically Tunable, Compostable, Healable and Scalable Engineered Living Materials 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.31.578234v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Novel design strategies are essential to realize the full potential of Engineered Living Materials (ELMs), including their biodegradability, manufacturability, sustainability, and ability to tailor functional properties. Toward these goals, we present Mechanically Engineered Living Material with Compostability, Healability, and Scalability (MECHS) - a material that integrates these features in the form of a stretchable plastic that is simultaneously flushable, compostable, and exhibits the characteristics of paper. This plastic/paper-like material is produced directly from cultured bacterial biomass (40%) producing engineered curli protein nanofibers in scalable quantities (0.5-1 g L-1). The elongation at break (1-160%) and Youngs modulus (6-450 MPa) of MECHS was tuned to more than two orders of magnitude. By genetically encoded covalent crosslinking of curli nanofibers, we increase the Youngs modulus by two times. MECHS biodegrades completely in 15-75 days, while its mechanical properties are comparable to petrochemical plastics and thus may find use as compostable materials for primary packaging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Manjula-Basavanna, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duraj-Thatte, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-02-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.31.578234</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mechanically Tunable, Compostable, Healable and Scalable Engineered Living Materials]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-02-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.01.578514v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Origin and Evolution of Orphan Genes: A Case Study in Tea Plant Family 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.01.578514v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Orphan genes and transcription factor genes (TFs) are pervasive across genomes, play pivotal roles as regulators in a myriad of biological processes. Despite their ubiquity, the evolutionary trajectories and functional divergence of these genes remain largely unexplored. Theaceae family, encompassing the economically and culturally significant tea plant, presents a unique opportunity to study these dynamics. Here, we decoded a nearly complete, chromosome-scale reference genome of Stewartia gemmata spanning 2.95 Gb. This study is enhanced by integrating the genome of S. gemmata, an early-diverging species within Theaceae, crucial for phylogenomic analyses and understanding the functional dynamics of orphan genes in this family. Our analysis confirmed the absence of a recent specific whole-genome duplication (WGD) event, with tandem duplications emerging as the predominant mechanism for gene duplication at ancestral nodes within Theaceae. By conducting an extensive comparative genomics analysis across 13 Theaceae and comparing these with a wide array of eukaryotic and prokaryotic proteins, we identified 37,618 orphan genes and 25,884 TFs in Theaceae. Interestingly, some orphan genes appear to have ancient origins in tea plant ancestors, suggesting relatively early origins with frequent gains and losses, conversely, many others seem more specific and recent. Notably, the orphan genes are characterized by shorter lengths, fewer exons and functional domains than TFs, implying relatively simpler functional roles. These orphan genes demonstrate diverse cellular localization and functions as predicted by GO/KEGG analysis, and are implicated in environmental response and flavor formation in tea plants. This study not only sheds light on the distinct evolutionary histories and functional divergences between orphan genes and TFs in Theaceae, but also contributes to our understanding of the genetic complexity and adaptability of this economically and culturally valuable plant family.

Short summary: The nearly complete genome of an early-diverging species Stewartia gemmata and phylogenomic studies provide insights into new gene evolution in Theaceae.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cheng, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yin, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Long, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>ZHAO, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-02-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.02.01.578514</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Origin and Evolution of Orphan Genes: A Case Study in Tea Plant Family]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-02-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.11.578748v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Whole-Genome Sequencing of Three Extremophile Bacillus subtilis StrainsIsolated from the Atacama Desert 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.11.578748v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Atacama Desert is home to bacteria that use biofilms as a means of protecting themselves against the harsh environment. We cultured and sequenced the genomes of three Bacillus sp. isolates from the soil of the Atacama Desert. This information will inform research in survival mechanisms of eubacteria in the Atacama Desert.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cavanaugh, N. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Couto Frignani, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thewedros, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Twahirwa, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riquelme, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hudson, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godoy, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-02-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.02.11.578748</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Whole-Genome Sequencing of Three Extremophile Bacillus subtilis StrainsIsolated from the Atacama Desert]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-02-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.11.579814v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Whole-Genome Sequencing of a Janthinobacterium sp. Isolated from the Patagonian Desert 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.11.579814v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Janthinobacterium is a genus of Gram-negative environmental bacteria that survive extreme conditions by forming biofilms and producing pigments. Janthinobacterium sp. LS2A, an extremophile isolated from soil in the Chilean Patagonia, contains seven known biosynthetic gene clusters, including the purple pigment violacein, which may aid in its survival in harsh environments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cavanaugh, N. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reverdy Pearson, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colbert, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riquelme, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hudson, A. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godoy, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-02-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.02.11.579814</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Whole-Genome Sequencing of a Janthinobacterium sp. Isolated from the Patagonian Desert]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-02-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.11.579855v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Using high-resolution functional MRI to differentiate impacts of strabismic and anisometropic amblyopia on evoked ocular dominance activity in humans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.11.579855v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We employed high-resolution functional MRI (fMRI) to distinguish the impacts of anisometropia and strabismus (the two most frequent causes of amblyopia) on the evoked ocular dominance (OD) response. Sixteen amblyopic participants (8 females), comprising 8 individuals with strabismus, 7 with anisometropia, 1 with deprivational amblyopia, along with 8 individuals with normal visual acuity (1 female), participated in this study for whom, we measured the difference between the response to stimulation of the two eyes, across early visual areas (V1-V4).

In controls, as expected from the organization of OD columns, the evoked OD response formed a striped pattern that was mostly confined to V1. Compared to controls, the OD response in amblyopic participants formed larger fused patches that extended into downstream visual areas. Moreover, both anisometropic and strabismic participants showed stronger OD responses in V1, as well as in downstream visual areas V2-V4. Although this increase was most pronounced in V1, the correlation between the OD response level and the interocular visual acuity difference (measured behaviorally) was stronger in higher-level visual areas (V2-V4).

Beyond these common effects, and despite similar densities of amblyopia between the anisometropic and strabismic participants, we found a greater increase in the size of V1 portion that responded preferentially to fellow eye stimulation in anisometropic compared to strabismic individuals. We also found a greater difference between the amplitudes of the response to binocular stimulation, in those regions that responded preferentially to the fellow vs. amblyopic eye, in anisometropic compared to strabismic subjects. In contrast, strabismic subjects demonstrated increased correlation between the OD responses evoked within V1 superficial and deep cortical depths, whereas anisometropic subjects did not.

These results provide some of the first direct functional evidence for distinct impacts of strabismus and anisometropia on the mesoscale functional organization of the human visual system, thus extending what was inferred previously about amblyopia from animal models.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nasr, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skerswetat, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaier, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malladi, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kennedy, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tootell, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hunter, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-02-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.02.11.579855</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Using high-resolution functional MRI to differentiate impacts of strabismic and anisometropic amblyopia on evoked ocular dominance activity in humans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-02-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.13.580183v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Characterizing directional dynamics of semantic prediction based on inter-regional temporal generalization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.13.580183v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The event-related potential/field component N400(m) has been widely used as a neural index for semantic prediction. It has long been hypothesized that feedback information from inferior frontal areas plays a critical role in generating the N400. However, due to limitations in causal connectivity estimation, direct testing of this hypothesis has remained difficult. Here, magnetoencephalography (MEG) data was obtained during a classic N400 paradigm where the semantic predictability of a fixed target noun was manipulated in simple German sentences. To estimate causality, we implemented a novel approach based on machine learning and temporal generalization to estimate the effect of inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) on temporal areas. In this method, a support vector machine (SVM) classifier is trained on each time point of the neural activity in IFG to classify less predicted (LP) and highly predicted (HP) nouns and then tested on all time points of superior/middle temporal sub- regions activity (and vice versa, to establish spatio-temporal evidence for or against causality). The decoding accuracy was significantly above chance level when the classifier was trained on IFG activity and tested on future activity in superior and middle temporal gyrus (STG/MTG). The results present new evidence for a model predictive speech comprehension where predictive IFG activity is fed back to shape subsequent activity in STG/MTG, implying a feedback mechanism in N400 generation. In combination with the also observed strong feedforward effect from left STG/MTG to IFG, our findings provide evidence of dynamic feedback and feedforward influences between IFG and temporal areas during N400 generation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mamashli, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatamimajoumerd, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jas, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uluc, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lankinen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Obleser, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friederici, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maess, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahveninen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-02-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.02.13.580183</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Characterizing directional dynamics of semantic prediction based on inter-regional temporal generalization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-02-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.17.580835v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Oxygen carrying nanoemulsions and respiratory hyperoxia eliminate tumor hypoxia-induced suppression and improve cancer immunotherapy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.17.580835v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hypoxia-HIF-1-driven immunosuppressive transcription and cAMP-elevating signaling through A2A-adenosine receptors (A2AR) represent a major tumor-protecting pathway that enables immune evasion. Recent promising clinical outcomes due to the blockade of the adenosine-generating enzyme CD73 and A2AR in patients refractory to all other therapies have confirmed the importance of targeting hypoxia-adenosinergic signaling. We report a novel and feasible approach to target the upstream stage of hypoxia-adenosinergic immunosuppression using an oxygen-carrying nanoemulsion (perfluorocarbon blood substitute). It is shown that oxygenation agent therapy i) eliminates tumor hypoxia, ii) improves efficacy of endogenously developed and adoptively transferred T cells, and thereby iii) promotes regression of tumors in different anatomical locations. We show that both T cells and NK cells avoid hypoxic tumor areas and that reversal of hypoxia by oxygenation agent therapy increases intratumoral infiltration of activated T cells and NK cells due to re-programming of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Thus, repurposing oxygenation agents in combination with supplemental oxygen may improve current cancer immunotherapies by preventing hypoxia-adenosinergic suppression, promoting immune cell infiltration and enhancing effector responses. These data also suggest that pretreating patients with oxygenation agent therapy may reprogram the TME from immune-suppressive to immune-permissive prior to adoptive cell therapy, or other forms of immunotherapy.

SummaryOxygen delivering nanoemulsions and respiratory hyperoxia address limitations of blood vessel-mediated tumor oxygenation and promote anti-tumor immune responses to enhance immunotherapy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Halpin-Veszeleiova, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mallouh, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apro, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romero, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bahr, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ward, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenberg, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sitkovsky, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spiess, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatfield, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-02-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.02.17.580835</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Oxygen carrying nanoemulsions and respiratory hyperoxia eliminate tumor hypoxia-induced suppression and improve cancer immunotherapy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-02-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.27.582256v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Human Foot Force Informs Balance Control Strategies when Standing on a Narrow Beam 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.27.582256v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite the abundance of studies on the control of standing balance, insights about the roles of biomechanics and neural control have been limited. Previous work introduced an analysis combining the direction and orientation of ground reaction forces. The "intersection point" of the lines of actions of these forces exhibited a consistent pattern across healthy, young subjects when computed for different frequency components of the center of pressure signal. To investigate the control strategy of quiet stance, we applied this intersection point analysis to experimental data of 15 healthy, young subjects balancing in tandem stance on a narrow beam and on the ground. Data from the sagittal and frontal planes were analyzed separately. The task was modeled as a double-inverted pendulum controlled by an optimal controller with torque-actuated ankle and hip joints and additive white noise. To test our prediction that the controller that minimized overall joint effort would yield the best fit across the tested conditions and planes of analyses, experimental results were compared to simulation outcomes. The controller that minimized overall effort produced the best fit in both balance conditions and planes of analyses. For some conditions, the relative penalty on the hip and ankle joints varied in a way relevant to the balance condition or to the plane of analysis. These results suggest that unimpaired quiet balance in a challenging environment can be best described by a controller that maintains minimal effort through the adjustment of relative ankle and hip joint torques.

NEW & NOTEWORTHYThis study explored balance control in humans during a challenging task using the novel intersection point analysis, based on ground reaction force direction and point of application. Experimental data of subjects standing on a narrow beam in tandem stance were compared with modeling results of a double-inverted pendulum. The analysis showed that individuals minimized effort by adjusting ankle and hip torques, shedding light on the interplay of biomechanics and neural control in maintaining balance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shiozawa, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Russo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hogan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sternad, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.02.27.582256</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Human Foot Force Informs Balance Control Strategies when Standing on a Narrow Beam]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.29.581569v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Assessing methylation detection for primary human tissue using Nanopore sequencing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.29.581569v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
DNA methylation most commonly occurs as 5-methylcytosine (5-mC) in the human genome and has been associated with human diseases. Recent developments in single-molecule sequencing technologies (Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) and Pacific Biosciences) have enabled readouts of long, native DNA molecules, including cytosine methylation. ONT recently upgraded their Nanopore sequencing chemistry and kits from R9 to the R10 version, which yielded increased accuracy and sequencing throughput. However the effects on methylation detection have not yet been documented.

Here we performed a series of computational analyses to characterize differences in Nanopore-based 5mC detection between the ONT R9 and R10 chemistries. We compared 5mC calls in R9 and R10 for three human genome datasets: a cell line, a frontal cortex brain sample, and a blood sample. We performed an in-depth analysis on CpG islands and homopolymer regions, and documented high concordance for methylation detection among sequencing technologies. The strongest correlation was observed between Nanopore R10 and Illumina bisulfite technologies for cell line-derived datasets. Subtle differences in methylation datasets between technologies can impact analysis tools such as differential methylation calling software. Our findings show that comparisons can be drawn between methylation data from different Nanopore chemistries using guided hypotheses. This work will facilitate comparison among Nanopore data cohorts derived using different chemistries from large scale sequencing efforts, such as the NIH CARD Long Read Initiative.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Genner, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akeson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meredith, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jerez, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malik, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miano-Burkhardt, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Team, C.-l.-r.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paten, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Billingsley, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blauwendraat, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.02.29.581569</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Assessing methylation detection for primary human tissue using Nanopore sequencing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.02.583126v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Unlocking Herbal Potentials: Novel Shikimate Kinase Inhibitors in the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.02.583126v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Against a backdrop of stagnant antibiotic innovation, the escalating prevalence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens forecasts a challenging future [6]. Traditionally, antibiotics, predominantly derived from fungal sources, employ a limited set of mechanisms to inhibit bacterial growth [6, 16]. Shikimate Kinase has emerged as a promising antibacterial target due to its exclusivity to bacteria and the lethality of its inhibition [4, 13, 14, 15, 28, 29, 30]. Although synthetic inhibitors have been developed, the exploration of plant-derived alternatives remains untapped. Naturally derived plant-based compounds provide a more viable option because of the high cost of creating synthetic compounds. This study examines the Goldenrod plant, reputed in Native American Ethno-medicine for its antimicrobial properties [3, 12, 17]. Employing Liquid Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) and Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR) models, the study evaluates the plants compounds for their potential as antibacterial agents. Antibacterial activity against Bacillus Subtilis was assessed using the Kirby-Bauer Disk Diffusion assay, and genetic sequencing was performed on mutants that overcame the initial inhibition zone. By comparing the parent and mutant strains, the mode of inhibition by the plant antibiotic was determined by backtracking. The study identified Shikimate Kinase as the inhibitory target of the plant-derived compounds. Molecular docking revealed a binding affinity of -8.9 kcal/mol for the most effective compound, which is statistically significant compared to Shikimate Acid, the enzymes natural substrate. Through Pymol visualization, competitive inhibition was confirmed, with the compounds binding pocket exhibiting a druggability score of 0.84, approaching the threshold of clinical drugs. This research suggests new antibiotic classes targeting the Shikimate Kinase pathway, offering an alternative approach to tackling ESKAPE pathogens and enhancing health outcomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nirgudkar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.02.583126</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Unlocking Herbal Potentials: Novel Shikimate Kinase Inhibitors in the Fight Against Antibiotic Resistance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.05.583426v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cannabinoid CB2 receptors in primary sensory neurons are implicated in CB2 agonist-mediated suppression of paclitaxel-induced neuropathic nociception and sexually-dimorphic sparing of morphine tolerance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.05.583426v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cannabinoid CB2 agonists show therapeutic efficacy without the unwanted side effects commonly associated with direct activation of CB1 receptors. The G protein-biased CB2 receptor agonist LY2828360 attenuates the maintenance of chemotherapy-induced neuropathic nociception in male mice and blocks the development of morphine tolerance in this model. However, the specific cell types involved in this phenomenon have never been investigated and whether this therapeutic profile is observed in female mice remains poorly understood. We used conditional deletion of CB2 receptors from specific cell populations to determine the population(s) mediating the anti-allodynic and morphine-sparing effects of CB2 agonists. Anti-allodynic effects of structurally distinct CB2 agonists (LY2828360 and AM1710) were present in paclitaxel-treated CB2f/f mice of either sex. The anti-allodynic effect of the CB2 agonists were absent in conditional knockout (KO) mice lacking CB2 receptors in peripheral sensory neurons (AdvillinCRE/+; CB2f/f) but preserved in mice lacking CB2 receptors in CX3CR1 expressing microglia/macrophages (CX3CR1CRE/+; CB2f/f). The morphine-sparing effect of LY28282360 occurred in a sexually-dimorphic manner, being present in male mice but absent in female mice of any genotype. In mice with established paclitaxel-induced neuropathy, prior LY2828360 treatment (3 mg/kg per day i.p. x 12 days) blocked the subsequent development of morphine tolerance in male CB2f/f mice but was absent in male (or female) AdvillinCRE/+; CB2f/f mice. LY2828360-induced sparing of morphine tolerance was preserved in male CX3CR1CRE/+; CB2f/f mice, but this effect was not observed in female CX3CR1CRE/+; CB2f/f mice. Similarly, co-administration of morphine with a low dose of LY2828360 (0.1 mg/kg per day i.p. x 6 days) reversed tolerance to the anti-allodynic efficacy of morphine in paclitaxel-treated male CB2f/f mice, but this effect was absent in female CB2f/f mice and AdvillinCRE/+; CB2f/f mice of either sex. Additionally, LY2828360 (3 mg/kg per day i.p. x 8 days) delayed, but did not prevent, the development of paclitaxel-induced mechanical and cold allodynia in either CB2f/f or CX3CR1CRE/+; CB2f/f mice of either sex. Our studies reveal that CB2 receptors in primary sensory neurons are required for the anti-allodynic effects of CB2 agonists in a mouse model of paclitaxel-induced neuropathic nociception. We also find that CB2 agonists acting on primary sensory neurons produce a sexually-dimorphic sparing of morphine tolerance in males, but not female, paclitaxel-treated mice.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Guenther, K. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makriyannis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romero, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hillard, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mackie, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hohmann, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.05.583426</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cannabinoid CB2 receptors in primary sensory neurons are implicated in CB2 agonist-mediated suppression of paclitaxel-induced neuropathic nociception and sexually-dimorphic sparing of morphine tolerance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.12.584260v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CB1 Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists Induce Acute Respiratory Depression in Awake Mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.12.584260v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recreational use of synthetic cannabinoid agonists (i.e., "Spice" compounds) that target the Cannabinoid Type 1 receptor (CB1) can cause respiratory depression in humans. However, {Delta}9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major psychoactive phytocannabinoid in cannabis, is not traditionally thought to interact with CNS control of respiration, based largely upon sparse labeling of CB1 receptors in the medulla and few reports of clinically significant respiratory depression following cannabis overdose. The respiratory effects of CB1 agonists have rarely been studied in vivo, suggesting that additional inquiry is required to reconcile the conflict between conventional wisdom and human data. Here we used whole body plethysmography to examine the respiratory effects of the synthetic high efficacy CB1 agonist CP55,940, and the low efficacy CB1 agonist {Delta}9-tetrahydrocannabinol in male and female mice. CP55,940 and THC, administered systemically, both robustly suppressed minute ventilation. Both cannabinoids also produced sizable reductions in tidal volume, decreasing both peak inspiratory and expiratory flow - measures of respiratory effort. Similarly, both drugs reduced respiratory frequency, decreasing both inspiratory and expiratory time while markedly increasing expiratory pause, and to a lesser extent, inspiratory pause. Respiratory suppressive effects occurred at lower doses in females than in males, and at many of the same doses shown to produce cardinal behavioral signs of CB1 activation. We next used RNAscope in situ hybridization to localize CB1 mRNA to glutamatergic neurons in the medullary pre-Botzinger Complex, a critical nucleus in controlling respiration. Our results show that, contrary to previous conventional wisdom, CB1 mRNA is expressed in glutamatergic neurons in a brain region essential for breathing and CB1 agonists can cause significant respiratory depression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Watkins, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aradi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hahn, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makriyannis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mackie, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katona, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hohmann, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.12.584260</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CB1 Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists Induce Acute Respiratory Depression in Awake Mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.14.585053v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
WISH-BONE: Whole-mount In Situ Histology, to label osteocyte mRNA and protein in 3D adult mouse bones 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.14.585053v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bone is a three dimensional and highly dynamic tissue under constant remodeling. Commonly used tools to investigate bone biology require sample digestion for biomolecule extraction or only provide two-dimensional spatial information. There is a need for 3D tools to investigate spatially preserved biomarker expression in osteocytes. In this work, we present a new method, WISH-BONE, to label osteocyte mRNA and protein in whole-mount mouse bone. For mRNA labeling, we used Hybridization Chain Reaction - Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization to label genes of interest in osteocytes. For protein labeling, samples were preserved using an epoxy-based solution that protects tissue structure and biomolecular components. Then an enzymatic matrix permeabilization step was performed to enable antibody penetration. Immunostaining was used to label various proteins involved in bone homeostasis. We also demonstrate the use of customized fluorescent nanobodies to target and label proteins in the cortical bone. However, the relatively dim signal observed from nanobodies staining limited detection. In this study, we share protocols, highlight opportunities, and identify the challenges of this novel 3D labeling method. They are the first protocols for whole-mount osteocyte 3D labeling of mRNA and protein in mature mouse bones. WISH-BONE will allow the investigation of molecular signaling in bone cells in their 3D environment and could be applied to various bone-related fields of research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Meslier, Q. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duerr, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shefelbine, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.14.585053</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[WISH-BONE: Whole-mount In Situ Histology, to label osteocyte mRNA and protein in 3D adult mouse bones]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.18.584988v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evaluating a Novel High-Density EEG Sensor Net Structure for Improving Inclusivity in Infants with Curly or Tightly Coiled Hair 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.18.584988v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Electroencephalography (EEG) is an important tool in the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience for indexing neural activity. However, racial biases persist in EEG research that limit the utility of this tool. One bias comes from the structure of EEG nets/caps that do not facilitate equitable data collection across hair textures and types. Recent efforts have improved EEG net/cap design, but these solutions can be time-intensive, reduce sensor density, and are more difficult to implement in younger populations. The present study focused on testing EEG sensor net designs over infancy. Specifically, we compared EEG data quality and retention between two high-density saline-based EEG sensor net designs from the same company (Magstim EGI, Whitland, UK) within the same infants during a baseline EEG paradigm. We found that within infants, the tall sensor nets resulted in lower impedances during collection, including lower impedances in the key online reference electrode for those with greater hair heights and resulted in a greater number of usable EEG channels and data segments retained during pre-processing. These results suggest that along with other best practices, the modified tall sensor net design is useful for improving data quality and retention in infant participants with curly or tightly-coiled hair.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mlandu, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCormick, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davel, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zieff, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradford, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herr, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobs, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khumalo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knipe, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madi, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazubane, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Methola, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mhlakwaphalwa, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miles, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goolam Nabi, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Negota, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nkubungu, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samuels, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Avery, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foster, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donald, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabard-Durnam, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.18.584988</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evaluating a Novel High-Density EEG Sensor Net Structure for Improving Inclusivity in Infants with Curly or Tightly Coiled Hair]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.19.585738v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The origin and evolution of cultivated rice and genomic signatures of heterosis for yield traits in super-hybrid rice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.19.585738v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Unraveling evolutionary history and genomic basis of heterosis is fundamental for advancing rice productivity. We developed a genome-scale phylogeny of Oryzeae by coalescing 39,984 gene trees. Our analysis supports parallel, independent origins and nearly synchronous evolutionary trajectories leading to the subsequent domestication of indica and japonica, evidenced by molecular dating and synonymous substitution rates for syntenic and domestication-associated genes. Our survey of 1,383 gene duplications in ancestor of O. sativa uncovers their roles in vital biological processes, highlighting the significance in environmental adaptability. Additionally, we confirm the lack of hybridization event among subspecies ancestors through gene tree topology and D-statistical analyses. We generated 71.67 GB whole-genome sequencing data for five super-hybrid rice varieties and their progenitors, revealing differential positive selection and genetic exchanges between subspecies, essential for heterosis formation. Crucially, our study underscores the role of non-additive gene expression in heterosis, particularly in genes associated with DNA repair and recombination, which may confer resistance traits. Furthermore, eQTL and de novo mutation analyses identify key developmental and stress response genes, offering targets for enhancing heterosis in rice. Overall, our research reveals crucial insights into the genetics of rice domestication and heterosis, offering a genomic resource to improve rices agricultural productivity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yin, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>ZHAO, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.19.585738</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The origin and evolution of cultivated rice and genomic signatures of heterosis for yield traits in super-hybrid rice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.20.586022v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sensory integration of food availability and population density during the diapause exit decision involves insulin-like signaling in  Caenorhabditis elegans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.20.586022v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Decisions made over long time scales, such as life cycle decisions, require coordinated interplay between sensory perception and sustained gene expression. The Caenorhabditis elegans dauer (or diapause) exit developmental decision requires sensory integration of population density and food availability to induce an all-or-nothing organismal-wide response, but the mechanism by which this occurs remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate how the ASJ chemosensory neurons, known to be critical for dauer exit, perform sensory integration at both the levels of gene expression and calcium activity. In response to favorable conditions, dauers rapidly produce and secrete the dauer exit-promoting insulin-like peptide INS-6. Expression of ins-6 in the ASJ neurons integrate population density and food level and can reflect decision commitment since dauers committed to exiting have higher ins-6 expression levels than those of non-committed dauers. Calcium imaging in dauers reveals that the ASJ neurons are activated by food, and this activity is suppressed by pheromone, indicating that sensory integration also occurs at the level of calcium transients. We find that ins-6 expression in the ASJ neurons depends on neuronal activity in the ASJs, cGMP signaling, a CaM-kinase pathway, and the pheromone components ascr#8 and ascr#2. We propose a model in which decision commitment to exit the dauer state involves an autoregulatory feedback loop in the ASJ neurons that promotes high INS-6 production and secretion. These results collectively demonstrate how insulin-like peptide signaling helps animals compute long-term decisions by bridging sensory perception to decision execution.

Summary/Significance StatementAnimals must respond appropriately to multiple sensory stimuli to make informed decisions. It remains unclear how the nervous system is able to integrate different sensory cues and propagate that information towards making decisions over longer timescales. We use the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to investigate how sensory integration occurs during the decision to exit diapause, a stress-resistant developmentally arrested state triggered by multiple sensory inputs including food availability and population density. We show how expression of an insulin-like peptide critical to dauer exit reflects the sensory integration process and decision commitment, and we dissect the regulation of this insulin-like peptides expression. Our study explicitly analyzes the relationship between neuronal activity and neuropeptide expression during a complex decision with diverse sensory inputs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seyedolmohadesin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mercado, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Finnen, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schroeder, F. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sternberg, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.20.586022</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sensory integration of food availability and population density during the diapause exit decision involves insulin-like signaling in  Caenorhabditis elegans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.22.584808v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Screening and characterization of 133 physiologically-relevant environmental chemicals for reproductive toxicity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.22.584808v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Reproduction is a functional outcome that relies on complex cellular, tissue, and organ interactions that span the developmental period to adulthood. Thus, the assessment of its disruption by environmental chemicals is remarkably painstaking in conventional toxicological animal models and does not scale up to the number of chemicals present in our environment and requiring testing.

We adapted a previously described low-throughput in vivo chromosome segregation assay using C. elegans predictive of reproductive toxicity and leveraged available public data sources (ToxCast, ICE) to screen and characterize 133 physiologically-relevant chemicals in a high-throughput manner. The screening outcome was further validated in a second, independent in vivo assay assessing embryonic viability. In total, 13 chemicals were classified as reproductive toxicants with the two most active chemicals belonging to the large family of Quaternary Ammonium Compounds (QACs) commonly used as disinfectants but with limited available reproductive toxicity data. We compared the results from the C. elegans assay with ToxCast in vitro data compiled from 700+ cell response assays and 300+ signaling pathways-based assays. We did not observe a difference in the bioactivity or in average potency (AC50) between the top and bottom chemicals. However, the intended target categories were significantly different between the classified chemicals with, in particular, an over-representation of steroid hormone targets for the high Z-score chemicals.

Taken together, these results point to the value of in vivo models that scale to high-throughput level for reproductive toxicity assessment and to the need to prioritize the assessment of QACs impacts on reproduction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ulaganathan, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Canio, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oke, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armstrong, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abrahamsson, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varshavsky, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lam, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooper, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fung, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woodruff, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allard, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.22.584808</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Screening and characterization of 133 physiologically-relevant environmental chemicals for reproductive toxicity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.24.586472v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Elucidating Microbial Iron Corrosion Mechanisms with a Hydrogenase-Deficient Strain of Desulfovibrio vulgaris 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.24.586472v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sulfate-reducing microorganisms extensively contribute to the corrosion of ferrous metal infrastructure. There is substantial debate over their corrosion mechanisms. We investigated Fe0 corrosion with Desulfovibrio vulgaris, the sulfate reducer most often employed in corrosion studies. Cultures were grown with both lactate and Fe0 as potential electron donors to replicate the common environmental condition in which organic substrates help fuel the growth of corrosive microbes. Fe0 was corroded in cultures of a D. vulgaris hydrogenase-deficient mutant with the 1:1 correspondence between Fe0 loss and H2 accumulation expected for Fe0 oxidation coupled to H+ reduction to H2. This result and the extent of sulfate reduction indicated that D. vulgaris was not capable of direct Fe0-to-microbe electron transfer even though it was provided with a supplementary energy source in the presence of abundant ferrous sulfide. Corrosion in the hydrogenase-deficient mutant cultures was greater than in sterile controls, demonstrating the H2 removal was not necessary for the enhanced corrosion observed in the presence of microbes. The parental H2-consuming strain corroded more Fe0 than the mutant strain, which could be attributed to H2 oxidation coupled to sulfate reduction producing sulfide that further stimulated Fe0 oxidation. The results suggest that H2 consumption is not necessary for microbially enhanced corrosion, but H2 oxidation can indirectly promote corrosion by increasing sulfide generation from sulfate reduction. The finding that, D. vulgaris was incapable of direct electron uptake from Fe0 reaffirms that direct metal-to-microbe electron transfer has yet to be rigorously described in sulfate-reducing microbes.

Impact StatementThe economic impact of microbial corrosion of iron-containing metals is substantial. A better understanding of how microbes accelerate corrosion is expected to lead to the development of methods to prevent corrosion. The results presented here refute the suggestion, frequently made in the microbiology literature, that microbial H2 uptake stimulates Fe0 corrosion. Also refuted, are previous claims that Desulfovibrio vulgaris is capable of directly extracting electrons from Fe0. The results are consistent with the concept that sulfide produced by sulfate-reducers promotes Fe0 oxidation with the production of H2. The results illustrate that appropriate mutants can provide rigor to corrosion mechanism studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ueki, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lovley, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.24.586472</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Elucidating Microbial Iron Corrosion Mechanisms with a Hydrogenase-Deficient Strain of Desulfovibrio vulgaris]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.25.586618v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Locus Coeruleus Contrast and Diffusivity: Effects of Age and Relations to Memory 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.25.586618v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neurocognitive aging researchers are increasingly focused on the locus coeruleus, a neuromodulatory brainstem structure that degrades with age. With this rapid growth, the field will benefit from consensus regarding which magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) metrics of locus coeruleus structure are most sensitive to age and cognition. To address this need, the current study acquired magnetization transfer- and diffusion-weighted MRI images in younger and older adults who also completed a free recall memory task. Results revealed significantly larger differences between younger and older adults for maximum than average magnetization transfer-weighted contrast (MTC), axial than mean or radial single-tensor diffusivity (DTI), and free than restricted multi-compartment diffusion (NODDI) metrics in the locus coeruleus; with maximum MTC being the best predictor of age group. Age effects for the MTC and NODDI metrics interacted with sex such that larger age group differences were seen in males than females. Age group differences were also larger for DTI metrics in the rostral, and NODDI metrics in the caudal, locus coeruleus subdivision. Within older adults, however, there were no significant effects of age on any measure of locus coeruleus structure. Finally, independent of age and sex, higher restricted diffusion in the locus coeruleus was significantly related to better (lower) recall variability, but not mean recall. Whereas MTC has been widely used in the literature, our comparison between the average and maximum MTC metrics, and inclusion of DTI and NODDI metrics, make important and novel contributions to our understanding of the aging of locus coeruleus structure.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bennett, I. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langley, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Solis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seitz, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, X. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.25.586618</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Locus Coeruleus Contrast and Diffusivity: Effects of Age and Relations to Memory]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.26.586708v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Effects of early life adversity and adolescent basolateral amygdala inhibition on corticolimbic connectivity and anxiety behaviors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.26.586708v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Early postnatal development of corticolimbic circuitry is shaped by the environment and is vulnerable to early life challenges. Prior work has shown that early life adversity (ELA) leads to hyperinnervation of glutamatergic basolateral amygdala (BLA) projections to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in adolescence. While hyperinnervation is associated with later-life anxiety behaviors, the physiological changes underpinning corticolimbic and behavioral impacts of ELA are not understood. We tested whether postsynaptic BLA-driven PFC activity is enhanced in ELA-exposed animals, using the maternal separation (MS) model of ELA. PFC local-field potential following BLA stimulation was facilitated in MS-exposed adolescents. Since ELA increases activity of the early-developing BLA, while the PFC exhibits protracted development, we further examined impacts of glutamatergic BLA activity during early adolescence on later-life PFC innervation and heightened anxiety. In early adolescence, MS-exposed animals exhibited decreased anxiety-like behavior, and acute adolescent BLA inhibition induced behaviors that resembled those of MS animals. To examine long-lasting impacts of adolescent BLA activity on innervation, BLA-originating axonal boutons in the PFC were quantified in late adolescence after early adolescent BLA inhibition. We further tested whether late adolescent BLA-PFC changes were associated with anxious reactivity expressed as heightened acoustic startle responses. MS rearing increased BLA-PFC innervation and threat reactivity in late adolescence, however early adolescent BLA inhibition was insufficient to prevent MS effects, suggesting that earlier BLA activity or post-synaptic receptor rearrangement in the PFC drives altered innervation. Taken together, these findings highlight both pre- and postsynaptic changes in the adolescent BLA-PFC circuit following ELA.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cody, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Artur de la Villarmois, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auger, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miguelez Fernandez, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lardizaball, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKnight, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tseng, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenhouse, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.26.586708</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Effects of early life adversity and adolescent basolateral amygdala inhibition on corticolimbic connectivity and anxiety behaviors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.26.586776v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An adverse rearing environment alters maternal responsiveness to infant ultrasonic vocalizations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.26.586776v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Rodent pups use a variety of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) to facilitate maternal care. Importantly, infant USV repertoires are dependent on both the age and early life experiences of the pups. We have shown that an adverse rearing environment modeled with the maternal separation (MS) paradigm alters caregiving behavior, but little is known about how pup USVs differentially elicit maternal attention. In the present study, maternal approach towards a vocalizing pup over a non-vocalizing pup was tested in a Y-maze apparatus at two developmental time points over the course of MS. At the postnatal day (P) 10, dams engaged in longer interaction times with the vocalizing pup compared to the non-vocalizing pup. This effect was modulated by rearing environment and the sex of the pup, with only MS dams spending more time with vocalizing male pups. As expected at P20, dams did not show a preference for either the vocalizing or non-vocalizing pups regardless of rearing environment, however, MS dams spent a greater amount of time in the center of the apparatus as compared to control dams, which can be interpreted as a measure of uncertainty and indecision. These effects are important considering the sex specific effects of MS exposure across all developmental stages. Our novel findings support the hypothesis that sex-specific pup-dam interactions may drive later life outcomes following adversity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rekapalli, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roman, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenhouse, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cody, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.26.586776</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An adverse rearing environment alters maternal responsiveness to infant ultrasonic vocalizations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.26.586895v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Probing enzyme-dependent pseudouridylation using direct RNA sequencing to assess neuronal epitranscriptome plasticity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.26.586895v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chemical modifications in mRNAs, such as pseudouridine (psi), can control gene expression. Yet, we know little about how they are regulated, especially in neurons. We applied nanopore direct RNA sequencing to investigate psi dynamics in SH-SY5Y cells in response to two perturbations that model a natural and unnatural cellular state: retinoic-acid-mediated differentiation (healthy) and exposure to the neurotoxicant, lead (unhealthy). We discovered that the expression of some psi writers change significantly in response to physiological conditions. We also found that globally, lead-treated cells have more psi sites but lower relative occupancy than untreated cells and differentiated cells. Interestingly, examples of highly plastic sites were accompanied by constant expression for psi writers, suggesting trans-regulation. Many positions were static throughout all three cellular states, suggestive of a "housekeeping" function. This study enables investigations into mechanisms that control psi modifications in neurons and its possible protective effects in response to cellular stress.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fanari, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tavakoli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akeson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makhamreh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nian, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCormick, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloch, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.26.586895</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Probing enzyme-dependent pseudouridylation using direct RNA sequencing to assess neuronal epitranscriptome plasticity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.27.587001v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Outer membrane vesicles can contribute to cellulose degradation in Teredinibacter turnerae, a cultivable intracellular endosymbiont of shipworms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.27.587001v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Teredinibacter turnerae is a cultivable cellulolytic Gammaproteobacterium (Cellvibrionaceae) that commonly occurs as an intracellular endosymbiont in the gills of wood-eating bivalves of the family Teredinidae (shipworms). The genome of T. turnerae encodes a broad range of enzymes that deconstruct cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin and contribute to wood (lignocellulose) digestion in the shipworm gut. However, the mechanisms by which T. turnerae secretes lignocellulolytic enzymes are incompletely understood. Here, we show that T. turnerae cultures grown on carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) produce membrane vesicles (MVs) that include a variety of proteins identified by LC-MS/MS as carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) with predicted activities against cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin. Reducing sugar assays and zymography confirm that these MVs exhibit cellulolytic activity, as evidenced by the hydrolysis of CMC. Additionally, these MVs were enriched with TonB-dependent receptors, which are essential to carbohydrate and iron acquisition by free-living bacteria. These observations indicate a potential role for MVs in lignocellulose utilization by T. turnerae in the free-living state, suggest possible mechanisms for host-symbiont interaction, and may be informative for commercial applications such as enzyme production and lignocellulosic biomass conversion.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gasser, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Altamia, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bresinger, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brewer, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flatau, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hancock, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Preheim, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Filone, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Distel, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.03.27.587001</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Outer membrane vesicles can contribute to cellulose degradation in Teredinibacter turnerae, a cultivable intracellular endosymbiont of shipworms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.04.588108v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DNA methylation modulates transcriptional noise in response to elevated pCO2 in the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.04.588108v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ocean acidification significantly affects marine calcifiers like oysters, warranting the study of molecular mechanisms like DNA methylation that contribute to adaptive plasticity in response to environmental change. However, a consensus has not been reached on the extent to which methylation modules gene expression, and in turn plasticity, in marine invertebrates. In this study, we investigated the impact of pCO2 on gene expression and DNA methylation in the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica. After a 30-day exposure to control (572 ppm) or elevated pCO2 (2,827 ppm), whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) and RNA-Seq data were generated from adult female gonad tissue and male sperm samples. Although differentially methylated loci (DML) were identified in females (89) and males (2,916), there were no differentially expressed genes, and only one differentially expressed transcript in females. However, gene body methylation impacted other forms of gene activity in sperm, such as the maximum number of transcripts expressed per gene and changes in the predominant transcript expressed. Elevated pCO2 exposure increased gene expression variability (transcriptional noise) in males but decreased noise in females, suggesting a sex-specific role of methylation in gene expression regulation. Functional annotation of genes with changes in transcript-level expression or containing DML revealed several enriched biological processes potentially involved in elevated pCO2 response, including apoptotic pathways and signal transduction, as well as reproductive functions. Taken together, these results suggest that DNA methylation may regulate gene expression variability to maintain homeostasis in elevated pCO2 conditions and could play a key role in environmental resilience in marine invertebrates.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Venkataraman, Y. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huffmyer, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>White, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Downey-Wall, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ashey, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Becker, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bengtsson, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Putnam, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Strand, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez-Casariego, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanamaker, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roberts, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.04.588108</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DNA methylation modulates transcriptional noise in response to elevated pCO2 in the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.07.588391v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Creative tempo: Spatiotemporal dynamics of the default mode network in improvisational musicians 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.07.588391v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The intrinsic dynamics of human brain activity display a recurring pattern of anti-correlated activity between the default mode network (DMN), associated with internal processing and mentation, and task positive regions, associated with externally directed attention. In human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, this anti-correlated pattern is detectable on the infraslow timescale (<0.1 Hz) as a quasi-periodic pattern (QPP). While the DMN is implicated in creativity and musicality in traditional time-averaged functional connectivity studies, no one has yet explored how creative training may alter dynamic spatiotemporal patterns involving the DMN such as QPPs. In the present study, we compare the outputs of two QPP detection approaches, sliding window algorithm and complex principal components analysis (cPCA). We apply both methods to an existing dataset of musicians captured with resting state fMRI, grouped as either classical, improvisational, or minimally trained non-musicians. The original time-averaged functional connectivity (FC) analysis of this dataset used improvisation as a proxy for creative thinking and found that the DMN and visual networks (VIS) display higher connectivity in improvisational musicians. We expand upon this datasets original study and find that QPP analysis detects convergent results at the group level with both methods. In improvisational musicians, dynamic functional correlation in the group-averaged QPP was found to be increased between the DMN-VIS and DMN-FPN for both the QPP algorithm and complex principal components analysis (cPCA) methods. Additionally, we found an unexpected increase in FC in the group-averaged QPP between the dorsal attention network and amygdala in improvisational musicians; this result was not reported in the original seed-based study of this dataset. The current study represents a novel application of two dynamic FC detection methods with results that replicate and expand upon previous seed-based FC findings. The results show the robustness of both the QPP phenomenon and its detection methods. This study also demonstrates the value of dynamic FC methods in reproducing seed-based findings and their promise in detecting group-wise or individual differences that may be missed by traditional seed-based resting state fMRI studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Watters, H. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fazili, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daley, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Belden, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LaGrow, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolt, T. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keilholz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.07.588391</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Creative tempo: Spatiotemporal dynamics of the default mode network in improvisational musicians]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.08.588578v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Connectome caricatures: removing large-amplitude co-activation patterns in resting-state fMRI emphasizes individual differences 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.08.588578v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
High-amplitude co-activation patterns are sparsely present during resting-state fMRI but drive functional connectivity1-5. Further, they resemble task activation patterns and are well-studied3,5-10. However, little research has characterized the remaining majority of the resting-state signal. In this work, we introduced caricaturing--a method to project resting-state data to a subspace orthogonal to a manifold of co-activation patterns estimated from the task fMRI data. Projecting to this subspace removes linear combinations of these co-activation patterns from the resting-state data to create Caricatured connectomes. We used rich task data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP)11 and the UCLA Consortium for Neuropsychiatric Phenomics12 to construct a manifold of task co-activation patterns. Caricatured connectomes were created by projecting resting-state data from the HCP and the Yale Test-Retest13 datasets away from this manifold. Like caricatures, these connectomes emphasized individual differences by reducing between-individual similarity and increasing individual identification14. They also improved predictive modeling of brain-phenotype associations. As caricaturing removes group-relevant task variance, it is an initial attempt to remove task-like co-activations from rest. Therefore, our results suggest that there is a useful signal beyond the dominating co-activations that drive resting-state functional connectivity, which may better characterize the brains intrinsic functional architecture.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez, R. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noble, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camp, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scheinost, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.08.588578</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Connectome caricatures: removing large-amplitude co-activation patterns in resting-state fMRI emphasizes individual differences]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.09.588731v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Development of a recombineering system for the acetogen Eubacterium limosum with Cas9 counterselection for markerless genome engineering 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.09.588731v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Eubacterium limosum is a Clostridial acetogen that efficiently utilizes a wide range of single-carbon substrates and contributes to metabolism of health-associated compounds in the human gut microbiota. These traits have led to interest in developing it as a platform for sustainable CO2-based biofuel production to combat carbon emissions, and for exploring the importance of the microbiota in human health. However, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering in E. limosum have been hindered by the inability to rapidly make precise genomic modifications. Here, we screened a diverse library of recombinase proteins to develop a highly efficient oligonucleotide-based recombineering system based on the viral recombinase RecT. Following optimization, the system is capable of catalyzing ssDNA recombination at an efficiency of up to 2%. Addition of a Cas9 counterselection system allows recombination to reach an efficiency of up to 100%, enabling creation of genomic point mutations in a scarless and markerless manner. We deployed this system to create a clean knockout of the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) gene cluster, generating a strain incapable of biofilm formation. This approach is rapid and simple, not requiring laborious homology arm cloning, and can readily be retargeted to almost any genomic locus. This work overcomes a major bottleneck Eubacterium limosum genetic engineering by enabling precise genomic modifications, and provides both a roadmap and associated recombinase plasmid library for developing similar systems in other Clostridia of interest.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=106 SRC="FIGDIR/small/588731v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (32K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1366103org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@11b1f0borg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1931600org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1896e4c_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sanford, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woolston, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.09.588731</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Development of a recombineering system for the acetogen Eubacterium limosum with Cas9 counterselection for markerless genome engineering]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.11.588920v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The landscape of regional missense mutational intolerance quantified from 125,748 exomes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.11.588920v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Missense variants can have a range of functional impacts depending on factors such as the specific amino acid substitution and location within the gene. To interpret their deleteriousness, studies have sought to identify regions within genes that are specifically intolerant of missense variation. Here, we leverage the patterns of rare missense variation in 730,947 exome sequenced individuals in the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD v4.1.1) against a null mutational model to identify transcripts with regional differences in missense constraint. Missense-depleted regions are enriched for ClinVar pathogenic variants, de novo missense variants from individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, and complex trait heritability. Following ClinGen calibration recommendations for the ACMG/AMP variant classification guidelines, we establish that variants within regions with <36% of their expected missense variation achieve moderate support for pathogenicity. We integrate this regional constraint measure into a missense deleteriousness metric (named MPC) that effectively stratifies rare and de novo missense variants in individuals with early-onset developmental conditions from controls. These results provide additional tools to aid in missense variant interpretation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chao, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panchal, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abderrazzaq, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ye, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schultz, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Compitello, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grant, R. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kosmicki, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weisburd, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laricchia, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodrich, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstein, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstein, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vittal, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poterba, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baxter, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watts, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Solomonson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>gnomAD consortium,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tiao, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rehm, H. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neale, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Talkowski, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MacArthur, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Donnell-Luria, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karczewski, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daly, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samocha, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.11.588920</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The landscape of regional missense mutational intolerance quantified from 125,748 exomes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.11.589044v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Medium Composition Affects Microbial Corrosion Rates 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.11.589044v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Desulfovibrio vulgaris and Desulfovibrio ferrophilus were previously proposed to have distinct iron corrosion mechanisms because D. ferrophilus corroded faster. However, the chloride concentration in the D. ferrophilus  marine medium was much higher than in the D. vulgaris  freshwater medium. D. vulgaris corrosion rates accelerated with increasing chloride and were faster than D. ferrophilus in the same marine medium. Differences in D. ferrophilus corrosion rates in two different media with the same chloride concentration suggested that minor differences in other medium constituents also impact on microbial corrosion. These results demonstrate the importance of considering medium composition in microbial corrosion studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ueki, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lovley, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.11.589044</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Medium Composition Affects Microbial Corrosion Rates]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.16.589731v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Atp1a2 and Kcnj9 are candidate genes underlying oxycodone behavioral sensitivity and withdrawal in C57BL/6 substrains 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.16.589731v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Opioid use disorder is heritable, yet its genetic etiology is largely unknown. C57BL/6J and C57BL/6NJ mouse substrains exhibit phenotypic diversity in the context of limited genetic diversity which together can facilitate genetic discovery. Here, we found C57BL/6NJ mice were less sensitive to oxycodone (OXY)-induced locomotor activation versus C57BL/6J mice in a conditioned place preference paradigm. Narrow-sense heritability was estimated at 0.22-0.31, implicating suitability for genetic analysis. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping in an F2 cross identified a chromosome 1 QTL explaining 7-12% of the variance in OXY locomotion and anxiety-like withdrawal in the elevated plus maze. A second QTL for EPM withdrawal behavior on chromosome 5 near Gabra2 (alpha-2 subunit of GABA-A receptor) explained 9% of the variance. To narrow the chromosome 1 locus, we generated recombinant lines spanning 163-181 Mb, captured the QTL for OXY locomotor traits and withdrawal, and fine-mapped a 2.45-Mb region (170.16-172.61 Mb). Transcriptome analysis identified five, localized striatal cis-eQTL transcripts and two were confirmed at the protein level (KCNJ9, ATP1A2). Kcnj9 codes for a potassium channel (GIRK3) that is a major effector of mu opioid receptor signaling. Atp1a2 codes for a subunit of a Na+/K+ ATPase enzyme that regulates neuronal excitability and shows functional adaptations following chronic opioid administration. To summarize, we identified two candidate genes underlying the physiological and behavioral properties of opioids, with direct preclinical relevance to investigators employing these widely used substrains and clinical relevance to human genetic studies of opioid use disorder.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Goldberg, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baskin, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adla, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beierle, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelliher, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yao, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirkpatrick, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, D. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luong, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luttik, K. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scotellaro, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Drescher, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crotts, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yazdani, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferris, M. T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, W. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulligan, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bryant, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.16.589731</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Atp1a2 and Kcnj9 are candidate genes underlying oxycodone behavioral sensitivity and withdrawal in C57BL/6 substrains]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.17.589951v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Nuclear size-regulated emergence of topological packing order on growing human lung alveolospheres 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.17.589951v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Within multicellular living systems, cells coordinate their positions with spatiotemporal accuracy to form various structures, setting the clock to control developmental processes and trigger maturation. These arrangements can be regulated by tissue topology, biochemical cues, as well as mechanical perturbations. However, the fundamental rules of how local cell packing order is regulated in forming three-dimensional (3D) multicellular architectures remain unclear. Furthermore, how cellular coordination evolves during developmental processes, and whether this cell patterning behavior is indicative of more complex biological functions, is largely unknown. Here, using human lung alveolospheres as a model system, by combining experiments and numerical simulations, we find that, surprisingly, cell packing behavior on alveolospheres resembles hard-disk packing but with increased randomness; the stiffer cell nuclei act as the  hard disks surrounded by deformable cell bodies. Interestingly, we observe the emergence of topological packing order during alveolosphere growth, as a result of increasing nucleus-to-cell size ratio. Specifically, we find more hexagon-concentrated cellular packing with increasing bond orientational order, indicating a topological gas-to-liquid transition. Additionally, by osmotically changing the compactness of cells on alveolospheres, we observe that the variations in packing order align with the change of nucleus-to-cell size ratio. Together, our findings reveal the underlying rules of cell coordination and topological phases during human lung alveolosphere growth. These static packing characteristics are consistent with cell dynamics, together suggesting that better cellular packing stabilizes local cell neighborhoods and may regulate more complex biological functions such as organ development and cellular maturation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pegoraro, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kotton, D. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.17.589951</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Nuclear size-regulated emergence of topological packing order on growing human lung alveolospheres]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.18.590074v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Profiling the LAM family of contact site tethers provides insights into their regulation and function 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.18.590074v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Membrane contact sites are molecular bridges between organelles that are sustained by tethering proteins and enable organelle communication. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane harbors many distinct families of tether proteins that enable the formation of contacts with all other organelles. One such example is the LAM (Lipid transfer protein At Membrane contact sites) family, composed of six members, each containing a lipid binding and transfer domain and an ER-embedded transmembrane segment. The family is divided into three homologous pairs each unique in their molecular architecture and localization to different ER subdomains. However, what determines the distinct localization of the different LAMs and which specific roles they carry out in each contact are still open questions. To address these, we utilized a labeling approach to profile the proximal protein landscape of the entire family. Focusing on unique interactors we could support that Lam5 resides at the ER-mitochondria contact site and demonstrate a role for it in sustaining mitochondrial activity. Capturing shared interactors of multiple LAMs, we show how the Lam1/3 and Lam2/4 paralogous pairs could be associated specifically with the plasma membrane. Overall, our work provides new insights into the regulation and function of the LAM family members. More globally it demonstrates how proximity labeling can help identify the shared or unique functions of paralogous proteins.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fenech, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kupervaser, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boshnakovska, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ravid, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomes Castro, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asraf, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Callegari, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lenz, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rehling, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schuldiner, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.18.590074</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Profiling the LAM family of contact site tethers provides insights into their regulation and function]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.18.590164v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Regulation of Chromatin Modifications through Coordination of Nucleus Size and Epithelial Cell Morphology Heterogeneity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.18.590164v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cell morphology heterogeneity is pervasive in epithelial collectives, yet the underlying mechanisms driving such heterogeneity and its consequential biological ramifications remain elusive. Here, we observed a consistent correlation between the epithelial cell morphology and nucleus morphology during crowding, revealing a persistent log-normal probability distribution characterizing both cell and nucleus areas across diverse epithelial model systems. We further showed that this morphological diversity arises from asymmetric partitioning during cell division. Moreover, we provide insights into the impact of nucleus morphology on chromatin modifications. We demonstrated that constraining nucleus leads to downregulation of the euchromatic mark H3K9ac and upregulation of the heterochromatic mark H3K27me3. Furthermore, we showed that nucleus size regulates H3K27me3 levels through histone demethylase UTX. These findings highlight the significance of cell morphology heterogeneity as a driver of chromatin state diversity, shaping functional variability within epithelial tissues.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bermudez, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Latham, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.18.590164</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Regulation of Chromatin Modifications through Coordination of Nucleus Size and Epithelial Cell Morphology Heterogeneity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.24.591030v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CRISPR screens reveal convergent targeting strategies against evolutionarily distinct chemoresistance in cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.24.591030v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Resistance to chemotherapy has been a major hurdle that limits therapeutic benefits for many types of cancer. Here we systematically identify genetic drivers underlying chemoresistance by performing 30 genome-scale CRISPR knockout screens for seven chemotherapeutic agents in multiple cancer cells. Chemoresistance genes vary between conditions primarily due to distinct genetic background and mechanism of action of drugs, manifesting heterogeneous and multiplexed routes towards chemoresistance. By focusing on oxaliplatin and irinotecan resistance in colorectal cancer, we unravel that evolutionarily distinct chemoresistance can share consensus vulnerabilities identified by 26 second-round CRISPR screens with druggable gene library. We further pinpoint PLK4 as a therapeutic target to overcome oxaliplatin resistance in various models via genetic ablation or pharmacological inhibition, highlighting a single-agent strategy to antagonize evolutionarily distinct chemoresistance. Our study not only provides resources and insights into the molecular basis of chemoresistance, but also proposes potential biomarkers and therapeutic strategies against such resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, W.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pei, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheng, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, H.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.24.591030</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CRISPR screens reveal convergent targeting strategies against evolutionarily distinct chemoresistance in cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.27.591478v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Topology-Driven Negative Sampling Enhances Generalizability in Protein-Protein Interaction Prediction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.27.591478v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Unraveling the human interactome to uncover disease-specific patterns and discover drug targets hinges on accurate protein-protein interaction (PPI) predictions. However, challenges persist in machine learning (ML) models due to a scarcity of quality hard negative samples, shortcut learning, and limited generalizability to novel proteins. Here, we introduce a novel approach for strategic sampling of protein-protein non-interactions (PPNIs) by leveraging higher-order network characteristics that capture the inherent complementarity-driven mechanisms of PPIs. Next, we introduce UPNA-PPI (Unsupervised Pre-training of Node Attributes tuned for PPI), a high throughput sequence-to-function ML pipeline, integrating unsupervised pretraining in protein representation learning with topological PPNI samples, capable of efficiently screening billions of interactions. UPNA-PPI improves PPI prediction generalizability and interpretability, particularly in identifying potential binding sites locations on amino acid sequences, strengthening the prioritization of screening assays and facilitating the transferability of ML predictions across protein families and homodimers. UPNA-PPI establishes the foundation for a fundamental negative sampling methodology in graph machine learning by integrating insights from network topology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chatterjee, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ravandi, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Philip, N. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abdelmessih, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mowrey, W. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ricchiuto, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mobarec, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eliassi-Rad, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-04-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.04.27.591478</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Topology-Driven Negative Sampling Enhances Generalizability in Protein-Protein Interaction Prediction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-04-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.01.592066v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mathematical model of intestinal lipolysis of a long-chain triglyceride 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.01.592066v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Lipids are an important component of food and oral drug formulations. Upon release into gastrointestinal fluids, triglycerides, common components of foods and drug delivery systems, form emulsions and are digested into simpler amphiphilic lipids (e.g., fatty acids) that can associate with intestinal bile micelles and impact their drug solubilization capacity. Digestion of triglycerides is dynamic and dependent on lipid quantity and type, and quantities of other components in the intestinal environment (e.g., bile salts, lipases). The ability to predict lipid digestion kinetics in the intestine could enhance understanding of lipid impact on the fate of co-administered compounds (e.g., drugs, nutrients). In this study, we present a kinetic model that can predict the lipolysis of emulsions of triolein, a model long-chain triglyceride, as a function of triglyceride amount, droplet size, and quantity of pancreatic lipase in an intestinal environment containing bile micelles. The model is based on a Ping Pong Bi Bi mechanism coupled with quantitative analysis of partitioning of lipolysis products in colloids, including bile micelles, in solution. The agreement of lipolysis model predictions with experimental data suggests that the mechanism and proposed assumptions adequately represent triglyceride digestion in a simulated intestinal environment. In addition, we demonstrate the value of such a model over simpler, semi-mechanistic models reported in the literature. This lipolysis framework can serve as a basis for modeling digestion kinetics of different classes of triglycerides and other complex lipids as relevant in food and drug delivery systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rezhdo, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>West, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ng, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saphier, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carrier, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.01.592066</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mathematical model of intestinal lipolysis of a long-chain triglyceride]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.04.592535v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Negative Selection Allows DNA Mismatch Repair-Deficient Mouse Fibroblasts In Vitro to Tolerate High Levels of Somatic Mutations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.04.592535v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Substantial numbers of somatic mutations have been found to accumulate with age in different human tissues. Clonal cellular amplification of some of these mutations can cause cancer and other diseases. However, it is as yet unclear if and to what extent an increased burden of random mutations can affect cellular function without clonal amplification. We tested this in cell culture, which avoids the limitation that an increased mutation burden in vivo typically leads to cancer. We performed single-cell whole-genome sequencing of primary fibroblasts from DNA mismatch repair (MMR) deficient Msh2-/- mice and littermate control animals after long-term passaging. Apart from analyzing somatic mutation burden we analyzed clonality, mutational signatures, and hotspots in the genome, characterizing the complete landscape of somatic mutagenesis in normal and MMR-deficient mouse primary fibroblasts during passaging. While growth rate of Msh2-/-fibroblasts was not significantly different from the controls, the number of de novo single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) increased linearly up until at least 30,000 SNVs per cell, with the frequency of small insertions and deletions (INDELs) plateauing in the Msh2-/- fibroblasts to about 10,000 INDELS per cell. We provide evidence for negative selection and large-scale mutation-driven population changes, including significant clonal expansion of preexisting mutations and widespread cell-strain-specific hotspots. Overall, our results provide evidence that increased somatic mutation burden drives significant cell evolutionary changes in a dynamic cell culture system without significant effects on growth. Since similar selection processes against mutations preventing organ and tissue dysfunction during aging are difficult to envision, these results suggest that increased somatic mutation burden can play a causal role in aging and diseases other than cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ehlert, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chi, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maslov, A. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoeijmakers, J. H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edelmann, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vijg, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.04.592535</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Negative Selection Allows DNA Mismatch Repair-Deficient Mouse Fibroblasts In Vitro to Tolerate High Levels of Somatic Mutations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.06.592793v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Helping behavior is associated with increased affiliative behavior, activation of the prosocial brain network and elevated oxytocin receptor expression in the nucleus accumbens 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.06.592793v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A prosocial response to others in distress is increasingly recognized as a natural behavior for many social species, from humans to rodents. While prosocial behavior is more frequently observed towards familiar conspecifics, even within the same social context some individuals are more prone to help than others. For instance, in a rat helping behavior test, rats can release a distressed conspecific trapped inside a restrainer by opening the restrainer door. Typically, rats are motivated to release a trapped cagemate, and consistently release the trapped rat ( openers), yet around 30% do not open the restrainer ( non-openers). To characterize the difference between these populations, behavioral and neural activity were compared between opener and non-opener rats tested with a trapped cagemate in the helping test. Behaviorally, openers showed significantly more social affiliative behavior both before and after door-opening compared to non-openers. Analysis of brain-wide neural activity based on the immediate early gene c-Fos revealed increased activity in openers in the previously identified prosocial neural network compared to non-openers. The network includes regions associated with empathy in humans (somatosensory cortex, insula, cingulate cortex and frontal cortex), and motivation and reward regions such as the nucleus accumbens. Oxytocin receptor mRNA expression levels were higher in the accumbens but not the anterior insula. Several transcription control pathways were also significantly upregulated in openers accumbens. These findings indicate that prosocial behavior may be predicted by affiliative behavior and activity in the prosocial neural network and provide targets for the investigation of causal mechanisms underlying prosocial behavior.

Significance StatementProsocial behavior is observed in many social species, including rodents, yet the determinants underlying why some animals help and others do not is poorly understood. Here, we show behavioral and neural differences between prosocial and non-prosocial pairs in a rat helping behavior test, with increased social interaction and nucleus accumbens oxytocin receptor gene expression in animals that helped.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hazani, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breton, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trachtenberg, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kantor, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bigelman, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cole, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weller, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ben-Ami Bartal, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.06.592793</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Helping behavior is associated with increased affiliative behavior, activation of the prosocial brain network and elevated oxytocin receptor expression in the nucleus accumbens]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.08.593106v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mismatch between pollen and pistil size causes asymmetric mechanical reproductive isolation across Phlox species 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.08.593106v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In flowering plants, pollen-pistil interactions can serve as an important barrier to reproduction between species. As the last barrier to reproduction before fertilization, interactions between these reproductive organs are both complex and important for determining a suitable mate. Here, we test whether differences in style length generate a post-mating prezygotic mechanical barrier between five species of perennial Phlox wildflowers with geographically overlapping distributions. We perform controlled pairwise reciprocal crosses between three species with long styles and two species with short styles to assess crossing success (seed set). We find that heterospecific seed set is broadly reduced compared to conspecific cross success and reveal a striking asymmetry in heterospecific crosses between species with different style lengths. To determine the mechanism underlying this asymmetric reproductive isolating barrier we assess pollen tube growth in vitro and in vivo. We demonstrate that pollen tubes of short-styled species do not grow long enough to reach the ovaries of long-styled species. We find that short-styled species also have smaller pollen and that both within and between species pollen diameter is highly correlated with pollen tube length. Our results support the hypothesis that the small pollen of short-styled species lacks resources to grow pollen tubes long enough to access the ovaries of the long-styled species, resulting in an asymmetrical, mechanical barrier to reproduction. Such mechanisms, combined with additional pollen-pistil incompatibilities, may be particularly important for closely related species in geographic proximity that share pollinators.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Feller, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burgin, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prabhu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hopkins, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.08.593106</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mismatch between pollen and pistil size causes asymmetric mechanical reproductive isolation across Phlox species]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.08.593203v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
mRNA psi profiling using nanopore DRS reveals cell-type-specific pseudouridylation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.08.593203v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pseudouridine (psi) is one of the most abundant human mRNA modifications yet its functional impact on translation has remained unclear. Using direct RNA nanopore sequencing coupled with our Mod-p ID analytical framework, we mapped psi at single-nucleotide resolution across six immortalized human cell lines derived from diverse tissue types. Psi sites identified by nanopore sequencing were cross-validated using Illumina-based methods, confirming both positional accuracy and reproducibility. Unlike prior short-read approaches, nanopore sequencing provided the unique ability to quantify relative occupancy at each site and to detect multiple modifications on the same RNA molecule, revealing combinatorial modification patterns that cannot be captured otherwise. Integrating these psi maps with matched proteomic and ribosome profiling datasets, we find that psi modulates translation through two mechanistic modes: (i) single high-occupancy psi sites enhance translational efficiency and protein output, whereas (ii) clustered psi modifications promote ribosome pausing, decoupling translation efficiency from protein yield. This integrative, multi-omics framework provides a quantitative model of how psi stoichiometry and distribution along transcripts shape ribosome dynamics and proteome composition across human cell types.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McCormick, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fanari, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloch, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klink, I. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meseonznik, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.08.593203</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[mRNA psi profiling using nanopore DRS reveals cell-type-specific pseudouridylation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.13.593929v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Novel Regulation on the Developmental Checkpoint Protein Sda that Controls Sporulation and Biofilm Formation in Bacillus subtilis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.13.593929v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Biofilm formation by Bacillus subtilis is triggered by an unusually simple environmental sensing mechanism. Certain serine codons, the four TCN codons (N for A, T, C, or G), in the gene for the biofilm repressor SinR caused lowered SinR translation and subsequent biofilm induction during transition from exponential to stationary growth. Global ribosome profiling showed that ribosomes pause when translating the four UCN (U for T on the mRNA) serine codons on mRNA, but not the two AGC/AGU serine codons. We proposed a serine codon hierarchy (AGC/AGT vs TCN) in that genes enriched in the TCN serine codons may experience reduced translation efficiency when serine is limited. In this study, we designed an algorithm to score all protein-coding genes in B. subtilis NCIB3610 based on the serine codon hierarchy. We generated a short list of 50 genes that could be subject to regulation by this novel mechanism. We further investigated one such gene from the list, sda, which encodes a developmental checkpoint protein regulating both sporulation and biofilm formation. We showed that synonymously switching the TCN serine codons to AGC in sda led to delayed biofilm formation and sporulation. This engineered strain also outgrew strains with other synonymously substituted sda alleles (TCN) in competition assays for biofilm formation and sporulation. Lastly, we showed that the AGC serine codon substitutions in sda elevated the Sda protein levels. This serine codon hierarchy-based novel signaling mechanism could be exploited by bacteria in adapting to stationary phase and regulating important biological processes.

ImportanceGenome-wide ribosome profiling in Bacillus subtilis shows that under serine limitation, ribosomes pause on the four TCN (N for A, C, G, and T), but not AGC/AGT serine codons, during translation at a global scale. This serine codon hierarchy (AGC/T vs TCN) differentially influences translation efficiency of genes enriched in certain serine codons. In this study, we designed an algorism to score all 4000+ genes in the B. subtilis genome and generated a list of 50 genes that could be subject to this novel serine codon hierarchy-mediated regulation. We further investigated one such gene, sda, encoding a developmental check point protein. We show that sda and cell developments controlled by Sda are also regulated by this novel mechanism.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qin, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenwich, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balaban, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Darcera, M. V. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gozzi, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.13.593929</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Novel Regulation on the Developmental Checkpoint Protein Sda that Controls Sporulation and Biofilm Formation in Bacillus subtilis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.16.594558v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evaluation of enzyme activity predictions for variants of unknown significance in Arylsulfatase A 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.16.594558v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Continued advances in variant effect prediction are necessary to demonstrate the ability of machine learning methods to accurately determine the clinical impact of variants of unknown significance (VUS). Towards this goal, the ARSA Critical Assessment of Genome Interpretation (CAGI) challenge was designed to characterize progress by utilizing 219 experimentally assayed missense VUS in the Arylsulfa-tase A (ARSA) gene to assess the performance of community-submitted predictions of variant functional effects. The challenge involved 15 teams, and evaluated additional predictions from established and recently released models. Notably, a model developed by participants of a genetics and coding bootcamp, trained with standard machine-learning tools in Python, demonstrated superior performance among sub-missions. Furthermore, the study observed that state-of-the-art deep learning methods provided small but statistically significant improvement in predictive performance compared to less elaborate techniques. These findings underscore the utility of variant effect prediction, and the potential for models trained with modest resources to accurately classify VUS in genetic and clinical research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jain, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trinidad, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, T. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diaz Neto, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ge, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Glagovsky, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moran, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rahimi, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeynep Calici, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cedillo, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berardelli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozden, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katsonis, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lichtarge, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rana, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pradhan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srinivasan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sajeed, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faraggi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jernigan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kloczkowski, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozkan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padilla, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de la Cruz, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Acuna-Hidalgo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grafmuller, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jimenez Barron, L. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manfredi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savojardo, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Babbi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martelli, P. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casadio, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pucci, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rooman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cia, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>R</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.16.594558</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evaluation of enzyme activity predictions for variants of unknown significance in Arylsulfatase A]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.21.595187v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Analyzing high-throughput assay data to advance the rapid screening of environmental chemicals for human reproductive toxicity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.21.595187v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While high-throughput (HTP) assays have been proposed as platforms to rapidly assess reproductive toxicity, there is currently a lack of established assays that specifically address germline development/function and fertility. We assessed the applicability domains of yeast (S. cerevisiae) and nematode (C. elegans) HTP assays in toxicity screening of 124 environmental chemicals, determining their agreement in identifying toxicants and their concordance with reproductive toxicity in vivo. We integrated data generated in the two models and compared results using a streamlined, semi-automated benchmark dose (BMD) modeling approach. We then extracted and modeled relevant mammalian in vivo data available for the matching chemicals included in the Toxicological Reference Database (ToxRefDB). We ranked potencies of common compounds using the BMD and evaluated correlation between the datasets using Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients. We found moderate to good correlation across the three data sets, with r = 0.48 (95% CI: 0.28-1.00, p<0.001) and rs = 0.40 (p=0.002) for the parametric and rank order correlations between the HTP BMDs; r = 0.95 (95% CI: 0.76-1.00, p=0.0005) and rs = 0.89 (p=0.006) between the yeast assay and ToxRefDB BMDs; and r = 0.81 (95% CI: 0.28-1.00, p=0.014) and rs = 0.75 (p=0.033) between the worm assay and ToxRefDB BMDs. Our findings underscore the potential of these HTP assays to identify environmental chemicals that exhibit reproductive toxicity. Integrating these HTP datasets into mammalian in vivo prediction models using machine learning methods could further enhance the predictive value of these assays in future rapid screening efforts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Varshavsky, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lam, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooper, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allard, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fung, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oke, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woodruff, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.21.595187</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Analyzing high-throughput assay data to advance the rapid screening of environmental chemicals for human reproductive toxicity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.22.594980v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spatial Profiling of Metals through Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry Imaging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.22.594980v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The spatial-omic analysis of biomolecules such as nucleic acids, lipids, metabolites, and proteins is advancing the study of biological systems and processes in a physio-pathological context. Here, we describe an innovative matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI MSI) method to detect metals within biological tissues using instrumentation that is widely available in research and clinical laboratories. We characterize the spatial distribution of metals in diverse settings including mouse embryogenesis, genetic disorders leading to abnormal metal accumulation, and preclinical testing for improved platinum-based chemotherapy delivery through focused ultrasound across the blood-brain barrier. Spatial metal profiling will advance research studies and the clinical analysis of metal-related diseases, enabling more precise use of metal-based therapies and advances in diverse scientific fields beyond biomedicine.

One-Sentence SummarySpatial metallomic profiling maps native metals or those coordinated to xenobiotics, antibodies, and biomolecules in tissues.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stopka, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bodineau, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baquer, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, J.-R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hossain, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Regan, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruiz, D. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fletcher, S.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pourquie, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lutsenko, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Payne, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agar, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazitschek, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDannold, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sorger, P. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santagata, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agar, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.22.594980</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spatial Profiling of Metals through Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry Imaging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.23.595547v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Single-cell proteomics reveals decreased abundance of proteostasis and meiosis proteins in advanced maternal age oocytes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.23.595547v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Advanced maternal age is associated with a decline in oocyte quality, which often leads to reproductive failure in humans. However, the mechanisms behind this age-related decline remain unclear. To gain insights into this phenomenon, we applied plexDIA, a multiplexed, single-cell mass spectrometry method, to analyze the proteome of oocytes from both young women and women of advanced maternal age. Our findings primarily revealed distinct proteomic profiles between immature fully grown germinal vesicle and mature metaphase II oocytes. Importantly, we further show that a womans age is associated with changes in her oocyte proteome. Specifically, when compared to oocytes obtained from young women, advanced maternal age oocytes exhibited lower levels of the proteasome and TRiC complex, as well as other key regulators of proteostasis and meiosis. This suggests that aging adversely affects the proteostasis and meiosis networks in human oocytes. The proteins identified in this study hold potential as targets for improving oocyte quality and may guide future studies into the molecular processes underlying oocyte aging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>GALATIDOU, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>PETELSKI, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>PUJOL, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LATTES, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LATORRACA, L. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>FAIR, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>POPOVIC, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>VASSENA, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>SLAVOV, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>BARRAGAN, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.23.595547</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Single-cell proteomics reveals decreased abundance of proteostasis and meiosis proteins in advanced maternal age oocytes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.27.596092v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Machine Learning Models for Cardiovascular Disease Prediction: A Comparative Study 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.27.596092v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) pose a significant threat to global public health, affecting individuals across various age groups. Factors such as cholesterol levels, smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical inactivity contribute to their onset and progression. Enhancing our understanding of CVD etiology and informing targeted interventions for disease prevention and management remains a critical challenge. In this study, we address the task of predicting the likelihood of individuals developing CVDs using machine learning techniques. Specifically, we explore three approaches: the k-nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithm, logistic regression, and the random forest algorithm. Leveraging a comprehensive dataset sourced from Kaggle, encompassing 11 relevant factors, we conduct a series of experiments to identify the most influential predictors of CVDs. Our analysis aims not only to forecast disease occurrence but also to elucidate the primary determinants contributing to its manifestation. Through comparative analysis of the three methodologies, we demonstrate that the random forest algorithm exhibits superior performance in terms of predictive accuracy. This research represents a significant step towards leveraging machine learning techniques to enhance our understanding of CVD dynamics and inform targeted interventions for disease prevention and management.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xing, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.27.596092</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Machine Learning Models for Cardiovascular Disease Prediction: A Comparative Study]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.30.596713v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrative epigenetics and transcriptomics identify aging genes in human blood 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.30.596713v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent epigenome-wide studies have identified a large number of genomic regions that consistently exhibit changes in their methylation status with aging across diverse populations, but the functional consequences of these changes are largely unknown. On the other hand, transcriptomic changes are more easily interpreted than epigenetic alterations, but previously identified age-related gene expression changes have shown limited replicability across populations. Here, we develop an approach that leverages high-resolution multi-omic data for an integrative analysis of epigenetic and transcriptomic age-related changes and identify genomic regions associated with both epigenetic and transcriptomic age-dependent changes in blood. Our results show that these "multi-omic aging genes" in blood are enriched for adaptive immune functions, replicate more robustly across diverse populations and are more strongly associated with aging-related outcomes compared to the genes identified using epigenetic or transcriptomic data alone. These multi-omic aging genes may serve as targets for epigenetic editing to facilitate cellular rejuvenation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moqri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poganik, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herzog, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ying, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emamifar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tyshkovskiy, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alec, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mur, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matei-Dediu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goeminne, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCartney, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marioni, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lasky-Su, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snyder, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gladyshev, V. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.30.596713</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrative epigenetics and transcriptomics identify aging genes in human blood]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.31.596810v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pulse Instabilities Can Shape Virus-Immune Co-evolution 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.31.596810v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adaptive immune systems engage in an arms race with evolving viruses, trying to generate new responses to viral strains that continually move away from the set of genetically-varying strains that have already elicited a functional immune response. It has been argued that this dynamical process can lead to a propagating pulse of an ever-changing viral population and concomitant immune response. Here, we introduce a new stochastic model of viral-host co-evolution, taking into account finite-sized host populations and varying processes of immune "forgetting". Using both stochastic and determinstic calculations, we show that there is indeed a possible pulse solution, but for a large host population size and for finite memory capacity, the pulse becomes unstable to the generation of new infections in its wake. This instability leads to an extended endemic infection pattern, demonstrating that the population-level behavior of virus infections can exhibit a wider range of behavior than had been previously realized.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kessler, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.31.596810</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pulse Instabilities Can Shape Virus-Immune Co-evolution]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.03.596970v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Amygdala circuit mechanisms underlying alcohol seeking 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.03.596970v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alcohol seeking during abstinence is mediated in part by strong associations between the pharmacological effects of alcohol and the environment within which alcohol is administered. The amygdala, particularly the basolateral amygdala (BLA), is a key neural substrate of environmental cue and reward associations since it is involved in associative learning and memory recall. However, we still lack a clear understanding of how the activity of molecularly distinct BLA neurons is affected by alcohol and encodes information that drives environmental cue-dependent, alcohol-related behaviors. We previously demonstrated that a subset of BLA neurons which express the CaMKII and Thy1 markers project preferentially to the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), rather than the central amygdala; and these neurons mediate fear inhibition rather than fear acquisition or expression, suggesting a specific role in positive valence processing. We now demonstrate that Pavlovian conditioning with alcohol administration increases the activity of these Thy1-expressing (Thy1+) excitatory neurons in mouse BLA, which is necessary for the conditioned appetitive response. In vivo calcium imaging indicates that the temporal activity profile of these neurons is also correlated with alcohol seeking behavior in response to environmental cues. Optogenetic inhibition of BLA Thy1+ neuronal activity disrupts both the formation and recall of alcohol conditioned place preference. Furthermore, selective axonal inhibition of BLA-Thy1+ neurons reveals that the activity of their NAcc and prefrontal cortex (PFC) projections are differentially necessary for alcohol cue association vs. recall, respectively. Together, these findings provide insights into a molecularly distinct subset of BLA neurons that regulates environmental cue-reward associations and drives alcohol seeking behaviors in a projection-specific manner.

DisclosuresKJR has received consulting income from Acer, Bionomics, and Jazz Pharma; serves on Scientific Advisory Boards for Sage, Boehringer Ingelheim, Senseye, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the Brain Research Foundation, and he has received sponsored research support from Alto Neuroscience. None of this work is directly related to the work presented here.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Suh, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pasqualini, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zambrano, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>RESSLER, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.03.596970</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Amygdala circuit mechanisms underlying alcohol seeking]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.03.597091v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Model supports asymmetric regulation across the intercellular junction for collective cell polarization 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.03.597091v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Symmetry breaking, which is ubiquitous in biological cells, functionally enables directed cell movement and organized embryogenesis. Prior to movement, cells break symmetry to form a well-defined cell front and rear in a process called polarization. In developing and regenerating tissues, collective cell movement requires the coordination of the polarity of the migration machineries of neighboring cells. Though several works shed light on the molecular basis of polarity, fewer studies have focused on the regulation across the cell-cell junction required for collective polarization, thus limiting our ability to connect subcellular interactions to tissue-level dynamics. Here, we investigate how polarity signals are communicated from one cell to its neighbor to ensure coordinated front-to-rear symmetry breaking with the same orientation across the group. In a theoretical setting, we exhaustively search a variety of intercellular interactions and identify the conditions required for the Rho GTPase signaling module and/or cytoskeletal dynamics to achieve either co-alignment arrangement or supracellular arrangement of the polarity axes in a group of 2 and 4 cells. Our work shows that only asymmetric regulations are favorable - such interactions involve either up-regulation of the kinetic rate of complementary polarity components or opposite regulation of the kinetic rates of the same polarity components across the cell-cell junction. Surprisingly, our results hold if we further assume the presence of an external stimulus, intrinsic cellular variability, or larger group size. The results underline the potential of using quantitative models to probe the molecular interactions required for macroscopic biological phenomena. Lastly, we posit that asymmetric regulation is achieved through junction proteins and predict that in the absence of cytoplasmic tails of such linker proteins, the likeliness of doublet co-polarity is greatly diminished.

Author summaryCells of the developing embryo undergo a highly complex chain of events that define their correct shape and positioning. Among these events, a crucial role belongs to coordinated cell movement of cells of different lineages over short and long distances to give rise to mature organs and organ systems. During collective movement, individual cells typically engage their autonomous polarity machinery, while being connected to their neighbors through adhesive cell-cell interactions. Despite advances in revealing the cell-cell interactions required for collective cell migration, a comprehensive picture of the molecular basis of intercellular communication for collective guidance is missing. To address this question, we devise a generalized mechanochemical model for cell polarity in a doublet and investigate how polarity signals are transmitted from one cell to another across seemingly symmetrical junctions. We have chosen to screen through all possible intercellular conditions of the Rho GTPase signaling circuit and/or cytoskeletal dynamics. Our systematic approach provides information on over 300 distinct conditions and reveals the intercellular regulation provided by junction proteins. In addition to predicting that only asymmetric interactions favor co-polarization, ensuring movement of the group in the same direction, our analysis also highlights the need for additional regulatory mechanisms for larger cell groups.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Levandosky, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Copos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.03.597091</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Model supports asymmetric regulation across the intercellular junction for collective cell polarization]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.05.597579v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Decreased scene-selective activity within the posterior intraparietal cortex in amblyopic adults 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.05.597579v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Amblyopia is a developmental disorder associated with reduced performance in visually guided tasks, including binocular navigation within natural environments. To help understand the underlying neurological disorder, we used fMRI to test the impact of amblyopia on the functional organization of scene-selective cortical areas, including the posterior intraparietal gyrus scene-selective (PIGS) area, a recently discovered region that responds selectively to ego-motion within naturalistic environments (Kennedy et al., 2024).

Nineteen amblyopic adults (10 female) and thirty age-matched controls (12 female) participated in this study. Amblyopic participants spanned a wide range of amblyopia severity, based on their interocular visual acuity difference and stereoacuity. The visual function questionnaire (VFQ-39) was used to assess the participants perception of their visual capabilities.

Compared to controls, we found weaker scene-selective activity within the PIGS area in amblyopic individuals. By contrast, the level of scene-selective activity across the occipital place area (OPA), parahippocampal place area (PPA), and retrosplenial cortex (RSC)) remained comparable between amblyopic and control participants. The subjects scores on "general vision" (VFQ-39 subscale) correlated with the level of scene-selective activity in PIGS.

These results provide novel and direct evidence for amblyopia-related changes in scene-processing networks, thus enabling future studies to potentially link these changes across the spectrum of documented disabilities in amblyopia.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Malladi, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skerswetat, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tootell, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaier, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hunter, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nasr, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.05.597579</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Decreased scene-selective activity within the posterior intraparietal cortex in amblyopic adults]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.06.597828v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Critical assessment of missense variant effect predictors on disease-relevant variant data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.06.597828v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Regular, systematic, and independent assessment of computational tools used to predict the pathogenicity of missense variants is necessary to evaluate their clinical and research utility and suggest directions for future improvement. Here, as part of the sixth edition of the Critical Assessment of Genome Interpretation (CAGI) challenge, we assess missense variant effect predictors (or variant impact predictors) on an evaluation dataset of rare missense variants from disease-relevant databases. Our assessment evaluates predictors submitted to the CAGI6 Annotate-All-Missense challenge, predictors commonly used by the clinical genetics community, and recently developed deep learning methods for variant effect prediction. To explore a variety of settings that are relevant for different clinical and research applications, we assess performance within different subsets of the evaluation data and within high-specificity and high-sensitivity regimes. We find strong performance of many predictors across multiple settings. Meta-predictors tend to outperform their constituent individual predictors; however, several individual predictors have performance similar to that of commonly used meta-predictors. The relative performance of predictors differs in high-specificity and high-sensitivity regimes, suggesting that different methods may be best suited to different use cases. We also characterize two potential sources of bias. Predictors that incorporate allele frequency as a predictive feature tend to have reduced performance when distinguishing pathogenic variants from very rare benign variants, and predictors supervised on pathogenicity labels from curated variant databases often learn label imbalances within genes. Overall, we find notable advances over the oldest and most cited missense variant effect predictors and continued improvements among the most recently developed tools, and the CAGI Annotate-All-Missense challenge (also termed the Missense Marathon) will continue to assess state-of-the-art methods as the field progresses. Together, our results help illuminate the current clinical and research utility of missense variant effect predictors and identify potential areas for future development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rastogi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, D.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keum, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Babbi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martelli, P. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savojardo, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casadio, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chennen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weber, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poch, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ancien, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cia, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pucci, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raimondi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vranken, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rooman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marquet, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olenyi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rost, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andreoletti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamandula, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bakolitsa, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mort, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooper, D. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bergquist, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pejaver, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenner, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ioannidis, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.06.597828</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Critical assessment of missense variant effect predictors on disease-relevant variant data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.13.598944v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Network connectivity differences in music listening among older adults following a music-based intervention 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.13.598944v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Music-based interventions are a common feature in long-term care with clinical reports highlighting musics ability to engage individuals with complex diagnoses. While these findings are promising, normative findings from healthy controls are needed to disambiguate treatment effects unique to pathology and those seen in healthy aging. The present study examines brain network dynamics during music listening in a sample of healthy older adults before and after a music-based intervention. We found intervention effects from hidden Markov model-estimated fMRI network data. Following the intervention, participants demonstrated greater occupancy (the amount of time a network was occupied) in a temporal-mesolimbic network. We conclude that network dynamics in healthy older adults are sensitive to music-based interventions. We discuss these findings implications for future studies with individuals with neurodegeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Faber, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Belden, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McIntosh, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.13.598944</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Network connectivity differences in music listening among older adults following a music-based intervention]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.16.599214v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A phosphorylation signal activates genome-wide transcriptional control by BfmR, the global regulator of Acinetobacter resistance and virulence. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.16.599214v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The nosocomial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is a major threat to human health. The sensor kinase-response regulator system, BfmS-BfmR, is essential to multidrug resistance and virulence in the bacterium and represents a potential antimicrobial target. Important questions remain about how the system controls resistance and pathogenesis. Although BfmR knockout alters expression of >1000 genes, its direct regulon is undefined. Moreover, how phosphorylation controls the regulator is unclear. Here, we address these problems by combining mutagenesis, ChIP-seq, and in vitro phosphorylation to study the functions of phospho-BfmR. We show that phosphorylation is required for BfmR-mediated gene regulation, antibiotic resistance, and sepsis development in vivo. Consistent with activating the protein, phosphorylation induces dimerization and target DNA affinity. Integrated analysis of genome-wide binding and transcriptional profiles of BfmR led to additional key findings: (1) Phosphorylation dramatically expands the number of genomic sites BfmR binds; (2) DNA recognition involves a direct repeat motif widespread across promoters; (3) BfmR directly regulates 303 genes as activator (eg, capsule, peptidoglycan, and outer membrane biogenesis) or repressor (pilus biogenesis); (4) BfmR controls several non-coding sRNAs. These studies reveal the centrality of a phosphorylation signal in driving A. baumannii disease and disentangle the extensive pathogenic gene-regulatory network under its control.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Raustad, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iinishi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohapatra, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soo, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hay, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geisinger, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.16.599214</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A phosphorylation signal activates genome-wide transcriptional control by BfmR, the global regulator of Acinetobacter resistance and virulence.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.17.599449v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Single-nucleus proteomics identifies regulators of protein transport 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.17.599449v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The physiological response of a cell to stimulation depends on its proteome configuration. Therefore, the abundance variation of regulatory proteins across unstimulated single cells can be associatively linked with their response to stimulation. Here we developed an approach that leverages this association across individual cells and nuclei to systematically identify potential regulators of biological processes, followed by targeted validation. Specifically, we applied this approach to identify regulators of nucleocytoplasmic protein transport in macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). To this end, we quantified the proteomes of 3,412 individual nuclei, sampling the dynamic response to LPS treatment, and linking functional variability to proteomic variability. Minutes after the stimulation, the protein transport in individual nuclei correlated strongly with the abundance of known protein transport regulators, thus revealing the impact of natural protein variability on functional cellular response. We found that simple biophysical constraints, such as the quantity of nuclear pores, partially explain the variability in LPS-induced nucleocytoplasmic transport. Among the many proteins newly identified to be associated with the response, we selected 16 for targeted validation by knockdown. The knockdown phenotypes confirmed the inferences derived from natural protein and functional variation of single nuclei, thus demonstrating the potential of (sub-)single-cell proteomics to infer functional regulation. We expect this approach to generalize to broad applications and enhance the functional interpretability of single-cell omics data.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Derks, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jonson, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koury, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rafiee, M.-R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.17.599449</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Single-nucleus proteomics identifies regulators of protein transport]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.20.599958v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DeEPsnap: human essential gene prediction by integrating multi-omics data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.20.599958v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Essential genes are necessary for the survival or reproduction of a living organism. The prediction and analysis of gene essentiality can advance our understanding of basic life and human diseases, and further boost the development of new drugs. Wet lab methods for identifying cell essential genes are often costly, time-consuming, and laborious. As a complement, computational methods have been proposed to predict essential genes by integrating multiple biological data sources. Most of these methods are evaluated on model organisms. However, prediction methods for human essential genes are still limited and the relationship between human gene essentiality and different biological information still needs to be explored. In addition, exploring suitable deep learning techniques to overcome the limitations of traditional machine learning methods and improve prediction accuracy is also important and interesting. We propose a snapshot ensemble deep neural network method, DeEPsnap, to predict human essential genes. DeEPsnap integrates sequence features derived from DNA and protein sequence data with features extracted or learned from multiple types of functional data, such as gene ontology, protein complex, protein domain, and protein-protein interaction network. More than 200 features from these biological data are extracted/learned which are integrated together to train a series of cost-sensitive deep neural networks by utilizing multiple deep learning techniques. The proposed snapshot mechanism enables us to train multiple models without increasing extra training effort and cost. The experimental results of 10-fold cross-validation show that DeEPsnap can accurately predict human gene essentiality with an average AUROC (Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve) of 96.1%, the average AUPRC (Area under the Precision-Recall curve) of 93.82%, the average accuracy of 92.21%, and the average F1 measure about 80.62%. In addition, the comparison of experimental results shows that DeEPsnap outperforms several popular traditional machine learning models and deep learning models. We have demonstrated that the proposed method, DeEPsnap, is effective for predicting human essential genes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cochran, B. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.20.599958</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DeEPsnap: human essential gene prediction by integrating multi-omics data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.24.600543v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The DivisionCounter, a method for counting large ranges of cell divisions in vivo, reveals cell dynamics of leukemic cell killing via CAR-T therapy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.24.600543v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cell division drives multicellular growth and its dysregulation can cause disease. While approximately 44 divisions are needed to produce without death all 1013 cells in the human body, current methods are limited to count 10 cell divisions in vivo across diverse mammalian cell types. Here we introduce the DivisionCounter, a method to count cell division in vivo over large division ranges ([~]70 divisions) using an easy fluorescence readout. We demonstrate that the DivisionCounter accurately measures the average cell division count of cells both in vitro and in vivo. Its use revealed that leukemia tumor division rates are independent of the organs specific microenvironment and CAR-T cell treatment, providing an estimate of tumor death rates in vivo. The DivisionCounter method holds unique potential for quantifying contributions of cell division, death, and migration to the growth of healthy and pathological mammalian tissues.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hustin, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conrad, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuentealba, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menegatti, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shneer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Battistella, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tabarin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weber, T. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amigorena, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duffy, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perie, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.24.600543</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The DivisionCounter, a method for counting large ranges of cell divisions in vivo, reveals cell dynamics of leukemic cell killing via CAR-T therapy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.26.600795v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Creating a genetic toolbox for the carbon-fixing, nitrogen-fixing and dehalogenating bacterium Xanthobacter autotrophicus 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.26.600795v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
X. autotrophicus is a metabolically flexible microorganism with two key features: 1) The organism has adapted to grow on a wide variety of carbon sources including CO2, methanol, formate, propylene, haloalkanes and haloacids; and 2) X. autotrophicus was the first chemoautotroph identified that could also simultaneously fix N2, meaning the organism can utilize CO2, N2, and H2 for growth. This metabolic flexibility has enabled use of X. autotrophicus for gas fixation, the creation of fertilizers and foods from gases, and the dehalogenation of environmental contaminants. Despite the wide variety of applications that have already been demonstrated for this organism, there are few genetic tools available to explore and exploit its metabolism. Here, we report a genetic toolbox for use in X. autotrophicus. We first identified suitable origins of replication and quantified their copy number, and identified antibiotic resistance cassettes that could be used as selectable markers. We then tested several constitutive and inducible promoters and terminators and quantified their promoter strengths and termination efficiencies. Finally, we demonstrated that gene expression tools remain effective under both autotrophic and dehalogenative metabolic conditions to show that these tools can be used in the environments that make X. autotrophicus unique. Our extensive characterization of these tools in X. autotrophicus will enable genetic and metabolic engineering to optimize production of fertilizers and foods from gases, and enable bioremediation of halogenated environmental contaminants.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Van Voorhis, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherbo, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.26.600795</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Creating a genetic toolbox for the carbon-fixing, nitrogen-fixing and dehalogenating bacterium Xanthobacter autotrophicus]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.01.601544v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dynamic functional connectivity correlates of trait mindfulness in early adolescence 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.01.601544v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundTrait mindfulness, the tendency to attend to present-moment experiences without judgement, is negatively correlated with adolescent anxiety and depression. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying trait mindfulness may inform the neural basis of psychiatric disorders. However, few studies have identified brain connectivity states that correlate with trait mindfulness in adolescence, nor have they assessed the reliability of such states.

MethodsTo address this gap in knowledge, we rigorously assessed the reliability of brain states across 2 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan from 106 adolescents aged 12 to 15 (50% female). We performed both static and dynamic functional connectivity analyses and evaluated the test-retest reliability of how much time adolescents spent in each state. For the reliable states, we assessed associations with self-reported trait mindfulness.

ResultsHigher trait mindfulness correlated with lower anxiety and depression symptoms. Static functional connectivity (ICCs from 0.31-0.53) was unrelated to trait mindfulness. Among the dynamic brains states we identified, most were unreliable within individuals across scans. However, one state, an hyperconnected state of elevated positive connectivity between networks, showed good reliability (ICC=0.65). We found that the amount of time that adolescents spent in this hyperconnected state positively correlated with trait mindfulness.

ConclusionsBy applying dynamic functional connectivity analysis on over 100 resting-state fMRI scans, we identified a highly reliable brain state that correlated with trait mindfulness. The brain state may reflect a state of mindfulness, or awareness and arousal more generally, which may be more pronounced in those who are higher in trait mindfulness.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Treves, I. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marusak, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Decker, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kucyi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hubbard, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bauer, C. C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leonard, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grotzinger, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giebler, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camacho Torres, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Imhof, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romeo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calhoun, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabrieli, J. D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.01.601544</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dynamic functional connectivity correlates of trait mindfulness in early adolescence]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.02.601766v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spectrotemporal profiling of ultrasonic vocalizations during neonatal opioid withdrawal reveals a kappa opioid receptor component in female mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.02.601766v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
RationaleOpioid use during pregnancy can lead to negative infant health outcomes, including neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS). NOWS comprises gastrointestinal, autonomic nervous system, and neurological dysfunction that manifest during spontaneous withdrawal. Variability in NOWS severity necessitates a more individualized treatment approach. Ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in neonatal mice are emitted in isolation as a stress response and are increased during opioid withdrawal, thus modeling a negative affective state that can be utilized to test new treatments.

ObjectivesWe sought to identify the behavioral and USV profile, brainstem transcriptomic adaptations, and role of kappa opioid receptors in USVs during neonatal opioid withdrawal.

MethodsWe employed a third trimester-approximate opioid exposure model, where neonatal inbred FVB/NJ pups were injected twice-daily with morphine (10mg/kg, s.c.) or saline (0.9%, 20 ul/g, s.c.) from postnatal day(P) 1 to P14. This protocol induces reduced weight gain, hypothermia, thermal hyperalgesia, and increased USVs during spontaneous morphine withdrawal.

ResultsOn P14, there were increased USV emissions and altered USV syllables during withdrawal, including an increase in Complex 3 syllables in FVB/NJ females (but not males). Brainstem bulk mRNA sequencing revealed an upregulation of the kappa opioid receptor (Oprk1), which contributes to withdrawal-induced dysphoria. The kappa opioid receptor (KOR) antagonist, nor-BNI (30 mg/kg, s.c.), significantly reduced USVs in FVB/NJ females, but not males during spontaneous morphine withdrawal. Furthermore, the KOR agonist, U50,488h (0.625 mg/kg, s.c.), was sufficient to increase USVs on P10 (both sexes) and P14 (females only) in FVB/NJ mice.

ConclusionsWe identified an elevated USV syllable, Complex 3, and a female-specific recruitment of the dynorphin/KOR system in increased USVs associated with neonatal opioid withdrawal severity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wingfield, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Misic, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDermott, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abney, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richardson, K. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubman, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beierle, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miracle, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sandago, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baskin, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Borrelli, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yao, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wachman, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bryant, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.02.601766</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spectrotemporal profiling of ultrasonic vocalizations during neonatal opioid withdrawal reveals a kappa opioid receptor component in female mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.03.601957v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CPIExtract: A software package to collect and harmonize small molecule and protein interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.03.601957v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SummaryThe binding interactions between small molecules and proteins are the basis of cellular functions. Yet, experimental data available regarding compound-protein interactions (CPIs) are not harmonized into a single entity but rather scattered across multiple institutions, each maintaining databases with different formats. Extracting information from these multiple sources remains challenging due to data heterogeneity. Here, we present CPIExtract (Compound-Protein Interaction Extract), a Python package that automatically retrieves CPI data from nine major repositories, filters non-human and low-quality records, harmonizes chemical and protein identifiers, and computes unified pChEMBL binding values. Compared with MINER, a state-of-the-art CPI extraction algorithm, CPIExtract retrieves 85.5% more compounds, 16-fold more experimentally supported interactions, and over four times more proteins, substantially increasing the availability of strong and weak binders. The resulting harmonized dataset enables custom filtering and export in standard tabular formats for downstream applications such as network medicine, drug repurposing, and training of deep learning models.

AvailabilityCPIExtract is an open-source Python package under an MIT license. CPIExtract can be downloaded from https://github.com/menicgiulia/CPIExtract and https://pypi.org/project/cpiextract. The package can run on any standard desktop computer or computing cluster.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Piras, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chenghao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sebek, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ispirova, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menichetti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.03.601957</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CPIExtract: A software package to collect and harmonize small molecule and protein interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.05.598868v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Distinct modes of holobiont specialization among cryptic coral lineages 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.05.598868v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
As ocean warming threatens reefs worldwide, identifying corals with adaptations to higher temperatures is critical for conservation. Genetically distinct but morphologically similar (i.e., cryptic) coral populations can be specialized to extreme habitats and thrive under stressful conditions. These corals often associate with locally beneficial microbiota (Symbiodiniaceae photobionts and bacteria), clouding interpretation of the drivers of thermal tolerance. Here, we leverage a holobiont (massive Porites) with high host-partner fidelity to investigate adaptive variation across classic ("typical" conditions) and extreme reefs characterized by higher temperatures and light attenuation. We uncovered three cryptic lineages that exhibit limited micro-morphological variation; one lineage dominated classic reefs (L1), one had more even distributions (L2), and a third was restricted to extreme reefs (L3). Two lineages were more closely related to populations [~]4300 km away, suggesting that these lineages are widespread. All corals harbored Cladocopium C15 photobionts, but strain-level compositions differed among lineages and reef types. L1 associated with distinct photobionts and bacteria in each reef type, whereas L2 had relatively stable associations. L3 hosted unique photobiont strains, signaling high host-photobiont fidelity. Analysis of light harvesting capacity and thermal tolerance revealed key adaptive variation underpinning survival in distinct habitats. L1 had the highest light absorption efficiency and lowest thermal tolerance, suggesting it is a classic reef specialist. L3 had the lowest light absorption efficiency and the highest thermal tolerance, showing that it is an extreme reef specialist. L2 had intermediate light absorption efficiency and thermal tolerance, signaling habitat generalism, potentially explaining how it survives well in both habitat types. These findings reveal diverging holobiont strategies to cope with extreme conditions. Resolving coral lineages is key to understanding variation in thermal tolerance among coral populations; uncovering thermally-tolerant holobionts can strengthen our understanding of coral evolution and symbiosis, and support global conservation and restoration efforts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Grupstra, C. G. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meyer-Kaiser, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, M.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andres, M. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juszkiewicz, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fifer, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Da-Anoy, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomez-Campo, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martinez-Rugerio, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aichelman, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huzar, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rivera, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davies, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.05.598868</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Distinct modes of holobiont specialization among cryptic coral lineages]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.05.602285v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identification of P-type ATPase as a bacterial transporter for host-derived small RNA 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.05.602285v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Host-derived small RNAs represent a finely tuned host response to maintain the host-microbial homeostasis. Among these, an emerging class known as transfer RNA-derived small RNA (tsRNA) has been implicated in modulating microbial-host interaction. Our previous study showed that when challenged with an oral pathobiont, Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn), an immortalized human oral keratinocyte cell line releases certain Fn-targeting tsRNAs that selectively inhibit the growth of Fn via their ribosome-targeting function. We also revealed the sequence- and energy-dependent uptake of tsRNAs by Fn. However, the mechanism underlying the tsRNA uptake at the molecular level remains elusive. In this study, using RNA affinity pull-down assay in combination with Mass Spectrometry, we identified a putative P-type ATPase transporter (PtaT) in Fn, which binds Fn-targeting tsRNAs in a sequence-specific manner. AlphaFold 3 simulation provides further evidence supporting the specific binding between PtaT and tsRNA compared to the scrambled control and the DNA counterpart. Through targeted mutagenesis and phenotypic characterization, we demonstrated the important role of PtaT in the uptake and antimicrobial capacity of tsRNAs against Fn in both ATCC 23726 type strain and a clinical tumor isolate (Fn CTI). Furthermore, global RNA sequencing and label-free Raman spectroscopy revealed the phenotypic differences between Fn wild type and PtaT-deficient mutant, highlighting the functional significance of PtaT in purine and pyrimidine metabolism. Collectively, our work identifies a bacterial transporter for tsRNAs and provides critical information for a fundamental understanding of how the host-generated tsRNAs specifically interact with its targeted bacteria at the molecular level.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dong, P.-T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiong, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.05.602285</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identification of P-type ATPase as a bacterial transporter for host-derived small RNA]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.08.602613v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Post-transcriptional cross- and auto-regulation buffer expression of the human RNA helicases DDX3X and DDX3Y 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.08.602613v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Y-linked gene DDX3Y and its X-linked homolog DDX3X survived the evolution of the human sex chromosomes from ordinary autosomes. DDX3X encodes a multi-functional RNA helicase, with mutations causing developmental disorders and cancers. We find that, among X-linked genes with surviving Y homologs, DDX3X is extraordinarily dosage-sensitive. Studying cells of individuals with sex chromosome aneuploidy, we observe that when the number of Y chromosomes increases, DDX3X transcript levels fall; conversely, when the number of X chromosomes increases, DDX3Y transcript levels fall. In 46,XY cells, CRISPRi knockdown of either DDX3X or DDX3Y causes transcript levels of the homologous gene to rise. In 46,XX cells, chemical inhibition of DDX3X protein activity elicits an increase in DDX3X transcript levels. Thus, perturbation of either DDX3X or DDX3Y expression is buffered - by negative cross-regulation of DDX3X and DDX3Y in 46,XY cells, and by negative auto-regulation of DDX3X in 46,XX cells. DDX3X-DDX3Y cross-regulation is mediated through mRNA destabilization - as shown by metabolic labeling of newly transcribed RNA - and buffers total levels of DDX3X and DDX3Y protein in human cells. We infer that post-transcriptional auto-regulation of the ancestral (autosomal) DDX3 gene transmuted into auto- and cross-regulation of DDX3X and DDX3Y as these sex-linked genes evolved from ordinary alleles of their autosomal precursor.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rengarajan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Derks, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bellott, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Page, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.08.602613</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Post-transcriptional cross- and auto-regulation buffer expression of the human RNA helicases DDX3X and DDX3Y]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.09.601756v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
3D Brain Vascular Niche Model Captures Invasive Behavior and Gene Signatures of Glioblastoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.09.601756v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Glioblastoma (GBM) is a lethal brain cancer with no effective treatment; understanding how GBM cells respond to tumor microenvironment remains challenging as conventional cell cultures lack proper cytoarchitecture while in vivo animal models present complexity all at once. Developing a culture system to bridge the gap is thus crucial. Here, we employed a multicellular approach using human glia and vascular cells to optimize a 3-dimensional (3D) brain vascular niche model that enabled not only long-term culture of patient derived GBM cells but also recapitulation of key features of GBM heterogeneity, in particular invasion behavior and vascular association. Comparative transcriptomics of identical patient derived GBM cells in 3D and in vivo xenotransplants models revealed that glia-vascular contact induced genes concerning neural/glia development, synaptic regulation, as well as immune suppression. This gene signature displayed region specific enrichment in the leading edge and microvascular proliferation zones in human GBM and predicted poor prognosis. Gene variance analysis also uncovered histone demethylation and xylosyltransferase activity as main themes for gene adaption of GBM cells in vivo. Furthermore, our 3D model also demonstrated the capacity to provide a quiescence and a protective niche against chemotherapy. In summary, an advanced 3D brain vascular model can bridge the gap between 2D cultures and in vivo models in capturing key features of GBM heterogeneity and unveil previously unrecognized influence of glia-vascular contact for transcriptional adaption in GBM cells featuring neural/synaptic interaction and immunosuppression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lee, V. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tejero, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silvia, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sattiraju, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramakrishnan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wojcinski, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kesari, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friedel, R. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.09.601756</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[3D Brain Vascular Niche Model Captures Invasive Behavior and Gene Signatures of Glioblastoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.26.605378v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Limiting the impact of protein leakage in single-cell proteomics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.26.605378v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Limiting artifacts during sample preparation can significantly increase data quality in single-cell proteomics experiments. Towards this goal, we characterize the impact of protein leakage by analyzing thousands of primary single cells that were prepared either fresh immediately after dissociation or cryopreserved and prepared at a later date. We directly identify permeabilized cells and use the data to define a signature for protein leakage. We use this signature to build a classifier for identifying damaged cells that performs accurately across cell types and species.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shipkovenska, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dou, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.26.605378</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Limiting the impact of protein leakage in single-cell proteomics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.30.605897v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Closing the genome of Teredinibacter turnerae T7902 by long-read nanopore sequencing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.30.605897v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We present the complete closed circular genome sequence derived from Oxford Nanopore sequencing of the shipworm endosymbiont Teredinibacter turnerae T7902 (DSM 15152, ATCC 39867), originally isolated from the shipworm Lyrodus pedicellatus (1). This sequence will aid in the comparative genomics of shipworm endosymbionts and the understanding of host-symbiont evolution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gasser, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flatau, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Altamia, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Filone, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Distel, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.30.605897</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Closing the genome of Teredinibacter turnerae T7902 by long-read nanopore sequencing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.07.607055v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Retinoic acid breakdown is required for proximodistal positional identity during amphibian limb regeneration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.07.607055v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Regenerating limbs retain their proximodistal (PD) positional identity following amputation. This positional identity is genetically encoded by PD patterning genes that instruct blastema cells to regenerate the appropriate PD limb segment. Retinoic acid (RA) is known to specify proximal limb identity, but how RA signaling levels are established in the blastema is unknown. Here, we show that RA breakdown via CYP26B1 is essential for determining RA signaling levels within blastemas. CYP26B1 inhibition molecularly reprograms distal blastemas into a more proximal identity, phenocopying the effects of administering excess RA. We identify Shox as an RA-responsive gene that is differentially expressed between proximally and distally amputated limbs. Ablation of Shox results in shortened limbs with proximal skeletal elements that fail to initiate endochondral ossification. These results suggest that PD positional identity is determined by RA degradation and RA-responsive genes that regulate PD skeletal element formation during limb regeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Duerr, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bakr, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffiths, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gautham, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Douglas, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Voss, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.07.607055</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Retinoic acid breakdown is required for proximodistal positional identity during amphibian limb regeneration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.09.607315v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Thermoneutral Housing has Limited Effects on Social Isolation-Induced Bone Loss in Male C57BL/6J Mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.09.607315v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Social isolation stress has numerous known negative health effects, including increased risk for cardiovascular disease, dementia, as well as overall mortality. The impacts of social isolation on skeletal health, however, have not been thoroughly investigated. We previously found that four weeks of social isolation through single housing led to a significant reduction in trabecular and cortical bone in male, but not female, mice. One possible explanation for these changes in male mice is thermal stress due to sub-thermoneutral housing. Single housing at room temperature ([~]20-25{degrees}C)--below the thermoneutral range of mice ([~]26-34{degrees}C)--may lead to cold stress, which has known negative effects on bone. Therefore, the aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that housing mice near thermoneutrality, thereby ameliorating cold-stress, will prevent social isolation-induced bone loss in male C57BL/6J mice. 16-week-old mice were randomized into social isolation (1 mouse/cage) or grouped housing (4 mice/cage) at either room temperature ([~]23{degrees}C) or in a warm temperature incubator ([~]28{degrees}C) for four weeks (N=8/group). As seen in our previous studies, isolated mice at room temperature had significantly reduced bone parameters, including femoral bone volume fraction (BV/TV), bone mineral density (BMD), and cortical thickness. Contrary to our hypothesis, these negative effects on bone were not ameliorated by thermoneutral housing. Social isolation increased glucocorticoid-related gene expression in bone and Ucp1 and Pdk4 expression in BAT across temperatures, while thermoneutral housing increased percent lipid area and decreased Ucp1 and Pdk4 expression in BAT across housing conditions. Overall, our data suggest social isolation-induced bone loss is not a result of thermal stress from single housing and provides a key insight into the mechanism mediating the effects of isolation on skeletal health.

Lay SummarySocial isolation is a major public health concern and is known to increase the risk for many diseases, including heart disease and dementia. The impact of social isolation on bone health, however, has not been well-studied. We previously found that four weeks of social isolation reduces bone in male mice. Isolated mice may experience more cold stress than mice housed in groups, as we commonly keep laboratory mice at temperatures below their ideal range, which could lead to bone loss. The aim of our study was therefore to test if housing mice at warmer temperatures, within their ideal temperature range, prevents isolation-induced bone loss in male mice. We found that housing mice at warmer temperatures did not fully prevent isolation-induced bone loss. We also found social isolation increased the expression of genes related to glucocorticoid signaling in bone across temperatures, as well as genes associated with mitochondrial metabolism within fat tissue. Overall, our results show that social isolation-induced bone loss is likely not a result of cold stress from single housing and provide insight into the mechanisms by which isolation causes bone loss.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mountain, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peters, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langlais, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stohn, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lary, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Motyl, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.09.607315</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Thermoneutral Housing has Limited Effects on Social Isolation-Induced Bone Loss in Male C57BL/6J Mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.13.607755v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Complete genome sequences of two new strains of the shipworm endosymbiont, Teredinibacter turnerae 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.13.607755v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We present the complete genome sequences of two strains of Teredinibacter turnerae, SR01903 and SR02026, shipworm endosymbionts isolated from the gills of Lyrodus pedicellatus and Teredo bartschi, respectively, and derived from Oxford Nanopore sequencing. These sequences will aid in the comparative genomics of shipworm endosymbionts and understanding of host-symbiont selection.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gasser, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flatau, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Altamia, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Filone, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Distel, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.13.607755</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Complete genome sequences of two new strains of the shipworm endosymbiont, Teredinibacter turnerae]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.13.607794v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Galvanotactic directionality of cell groups depends on group size 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.13.607794v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Motile cells migrate directionally in the electric field in a process known as galvanotaxis, important and under-investigated phenomenon in wound healing and development. We previously reported that individual fish keratocyte cells migrate to the cathode in electric fields, that inhibition of PI3 kinase reverses single cells to the anode, and that large cohesive groups of either unperturbed or PI3K-inhibited cells migrate to the cathode. Here we find that small uninhibited cell groups move to the cathode, while small groups of PI3K-inhibited cells move to the anode. Small groups move faster than large groups, and groups of unperturbed cells move faster than PI3K-inhibited cell groups of comparable sizes. Shapes and sizes of large groups change little when they start migrating, while size and shapes of small groups change significantly, lamellipodia disappear from the rear edges of these groups, and their shapes start to resemble giant single cells. Our results are consistent with the computational model, according to which cells inside and at the edge of the groups pool their propulsive forces to move but interpret directional signals differently. Namely, cells in the group interior are directed to the cathode independently of their chemical state. Meanwhile, the edge cells behave like individual cells: they are directed to the cathode/anode in uninhibited/PI3K-inhibited groups, respectively. As a result, all cells drive uninhibited groups to the cathode, while larger PI3K-inhibited groups are directed by cell majority in the group interior to the cathode, while majority of the edge cells in small groups win the tug-of-war driving these groups to the anode.

Significance statementMotile cells migrate directionally in electric fields. This behavior - galvanotaxis - is important in many physiological phenomena. Individual fish keratocytes migrate to the cathode, while inhibition of PI3K reverses single cells to the anode. Uninhibited cell groups move to the cathode. Surprisingly, groups of PI3K-inhibited cells exhibit bidirectional behavior: larger/smaller groups move to the cathode/anode, respectively. A mechanical model suggests that inner and outer cells interpret directional signals differently, and that a tug-of-war between the outer and inner cells directs the cell groups. These results shed light on general principles of collective cell migration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Copos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>sun, y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reid, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Draper, B. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yue, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bernadskaya, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mogilner, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.13.607794</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Galvanotactic directionality of cell groups depends on group size]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.20.608817v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Behavioral and neural correlates of diverse conditioned fear responses in male and female rats 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.20.608817v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pavlovian fear conditioning is a widely used tool that models associative learning in rodents. For decades the field has used predominantly male rodents and focused on a sole conditioned fear response: freezing. However, recent work from our lab and others has identified darting as a female-biased conditioned response, characterized by an escape-like movement across a fear conditioning chamber. It is also accompanied by a behavioral phenotype: Darters reliably show decreased freezing compared to Non-darters and males and reach higher velocities in response to the foot shock ("shock response"). However, the relationship between shock response and conditioned darting is not known. This study investigated if this link is due to differences in general processing of aversive stimuli between Darters, Non-darters and males. Across a variety of modalities, including corticosterone measures, the acoustic startle test, and sensitivity to thermal pain, Darters were found not to be more reactive or sensitive to aversive stimuli, and, in some cases, they appear less reactive to Non-darters and males. Analyses of cFos activity in regions involved in pain and fear processing following fear conditioning identified discrete patterns of expression among Darters, Non-darters, and males exposed to low and high intensity foot shocks. The results from these studies further our understanding of the differences between Darters, Non-darters and males and highlight the importance of studying individual differences in fear conditioning as indicators of fear state.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vincelette, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tuberman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheppard, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bergeron, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calitri, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cody, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kannan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keith, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parakoyi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pikus, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vance, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ziane, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenhouse, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laine, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shansky, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.20.608817</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Behavioral and neural correlates of diverse conditioned fear responses in male and female rats]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.20.608859v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Revisiting equivalent optical properties for cerebrospinal fluid to improve diffusion-based modeling accuracy in the brain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.20.608859v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceThe diffusion approximation (DA) is used in functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) studies despite its known limitations due to the presence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Many of these studies rely on a set of empirical CSF optical properties, recommended by a previous simulation study, that were not selected for the purpose of minimizing DA modeling errors.

AimWe aim to directly quantify the accuracy of DA solutions in brain models by comparing those with the gold-standard solutions produced by the mesh-based Monte Carlo (MMC), based on which we derive updated recommen-dations.

ApproachFor both a 5-layer head and Colin27 atlas models, we obtain DA solutions by independently sweeping the CSF absorption ({micro}a) and reduced scattering [Formula] coefficients. Using an MMC solution with literature CSF optical properties as reference, we compute the errors for surface fluence, total brain sensitivity and brain energy-deposition, and identify the optimized settings where the such error is minimized.

ResultsOur results suggest that previously recommended CSF properties can cause significant errors (8.7% to 52%) in multiple tested metrics. By simultaneously sweeping {micro}a and [Formula],we can identify infinite numbers of solutions that can exactly match DA with MMC solutions for any single tested metric. Furthermore, it is also possible to simul-taneously minimize multiple metrics at multiple source/detector separations, leading to our new recommendation of setting [Formula] while maintaining physiological {micro}a for CSF in DA simulations.

ConclusionOur new recommendation of CSF equivalent optical properties can greatly reduce the model mismatches between DA and MMC solutions at multiple metrics without sacrificing computational speed. We also show that it is possible to eliminate such a mismatch for a single or a pair of metrics of interest.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lewis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.20.608859</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Revisiting equivalent optical properties for cerebrospinal fluid to improve diffusion-based modeling accuracy in the brain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.21.609033v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evolutionary mismatch between nuclear and mitochondrial genomes does not promote reversion mutations in mtDNA. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.21.609033v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Serrano et al. (Serrano et al., 2024) use a high-fidelity somatic mtDNA mutation analysis in conplastic mice in which mtDNA was replaced with exogenous mtDNA of different mouse strains. Serrano reported apparent abundant somatic reversion mutations in the exogenous mtDNA that seemed to restore the original mito-nuclear match. If real, such a phenomenon would have important implications for health and genetics. In todays highly mixed human population, the pairing of potentially mismatched nuclear and mitochondrial genomes is widespread, so the proposed reversion mutagenesis should be commonplace. We demonstrate, however, that these reversion mutations are not real but originate from cross-contamination between samples and from NUMTs, the mtDNA pseudogenes located in the nuclear genome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.21.609033</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evolutionary mismatch between nuclear and mitochondrial genomes does not promote reversion mutations in mtDNA.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.24.609500v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A genetically encoded fluorescent reporter for polyamines 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.24.609500v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Polyamines are abundant and evolutionarily conserved metabolites that are essential for life. Dietary polyamine supplementation extends life-span and health-span. Dysregulation of polyamine homeostasis is linked to Parkinsons disease and cancer, driving interest in therapeutically targeting this pathway. However, measuring cellular polyamine levels, which vary across cell types and states, remains challenging. We introduce a first-in-class genetically encoded polyamine reporter for real-time measurement of polyamine concentrations in single living cells. This reporter utilizes the polyamine-responsive ribosomal frameshift motif from the OAZ1 gene. We demonstrate broad applicability of this approach and reveal dynamic changes in polyamine levels in response to genetic and pharmacological perturbations. Using this reporter, we conducted a genome-wide CRISPR screen and uncovered an unexpected link between mitochondrial respiration and polyamine import, which are both risk factors for Parkinsons disease. By offering a new lens to examine polyamine biology, this reporter may advance our understanding of these ubiquitous metabolites and accelerate therapy development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sharma, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, C. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keys, H. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Imada, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joseph, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferro, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunchok, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yilmaz, O. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weng, J.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.24.609500</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A genetically encoded fluorescent reporter for polyamines]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.26.609665v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Alternate RNA decoding results in stable and abundant proteins in mammals 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.26.609665v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Amino acid substitutions may substantially alter protein stability and function, but the contribution of substitutions arising from alternate translation (deviations from the genetic code) is unknown. To explore it, we analyzed deep proteomic and transcriptomic data from over 1,000 human samples, including 6 cancer types and 26 healthy human tissues. This global analysis identified 60,803 fragmentation spectra corresponding to 8,801 unique substitution sites in proteins derived from 1,782 genes, including 2,000 confidently localized sites. Some substitutions are shared across samples, while others exhibit strong tissue-type and cancer specificity. Surprisingly, products of alternate translation are more abundant than their canonical counterparts for hundreds of proteins, suggesting sense codon recoding. Recoded proteins include transcription factors, proteases, signaling proteins, and proteins associated with neurodegeneration. Mechanisms contributing to substitution abundance include protein stability, codon frequency, codon-anticodon mismatches, and RNA modifications. We characterize how alternatively translated proteoform ratios vary across protein domains, tissue types and cancers. The substitution ratios are positively associated with intrinsically disordered regions and genetic polymorphisms in gnomAD, though the polymorphisms cannot account for the substitutions. The sequence, relative abundance, and the tissue-specificity of alternatively translated proteins are conserved between human and mouse. These results demonstrate the contribution of alternate translation to diversifying mammalian proteomes, and its association with protein stability, tissue-specific proteomes, and diseases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tsour, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Machne, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Widmer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.26.609665</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Alternate RNA decoding results in stable and abundant proteins in mammals]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.26.609777v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Proteome asymmetry in mouse and human embryos before fate specification 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.26.609777v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pre-patterning of the embryo, driven by spatially localized factors, is a common feature across several non-mammalian species1-4. However, mammals display regulative development and thus it was thought that blastomeres of the embryo do not show such pre-patterning, contributing randomly to the three lineages of the blastocyst: the epiblast, primitive endoderm and trophectoderm that will generate the new organism, the yolk sac and placenta respectively 4-6. Unexpectedly, early blastomeres of mouse and human embryos have been reported to have distinct developmental fates, potential and heterogeneous abundance of certain transcripts7-12. Nevertheless, the extent of the earliest intra-embryo differences remains unclear and controversial. Here, by utilizing multiplexed and label-free single-cell proteomics by mass-spectrometry13, we show that 2-cell mouse and human embryos contain an alpha and a beta blastomere as defined by differential abundance of hundreds of proteins exhibiting strong functional enrichment for protein synthesis, transport, and degradation. Such asymmetrically distributed proteins include Gps1 and Nedd8, depletion or overexpression of which in one blastomere of the 2-cell embryo impacts lineage segregation. These protein asymmetries increase at 4-cell stage. Intriguingly, halved mouse zygotes display asymmetric protein abundance that resembles alpha and beta blastomeres, suggesting differential proteome localization already within zygotes. We find that beta blastomeres give rise to a blastocyst with a higher proportion of epiblast cells than alpha blastomeres and that vegetal blastomeres, which are known to have a reduced developmental potential, are more likely to be alpha. Human 2-cell blastomeres also partition into two clusters sharing strong concordance with clusters found in mouse, in terms of differentially abundant proteins and functional enrichment. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of intra-zygotic and inter-blastomere proteomic asymmetry in mammals that has a role in lineage segregation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Iwamoto-Stohl, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petelski, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meglicki, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huffman, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Derks, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jorgensen, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weatherbee, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weberling, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gantner, C. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mandelbaum, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paulson, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lam, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmady, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vasquez, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zernicka-Goetz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.26.609777</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Proteome asymmetry in mouse and human embryos before fate specification]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.28.609577v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High-throughput Image-based Clustering of CAR-T/Tumor Cocultures for Rapid and Facile Hit Identification 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.28.609577v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWChimeric antigen receptor T cell is important because of its potential to treat various diseases. As deep learning continues to advance, using unsupervised methods to classify medical images has become a significant focus because collecting high-quality labeled data for medical images is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Beyond the need for accurate labeling, there is a desire to explore the underlying characteristics of the data, even when labels may be ambiguous or uncertain. To address these challenges, we present a novel approach that combines image clustering with an insightful explanation of how these clusters are formed. Our method employs a U-net combined with a clustering algorithm to segment the dataset into different groups. After clustering, we use various techniques to interpret and elucidate the results. Moreover, our paper introduces a unique dataset focused on cell data, specifically highlighting the developmental patterns of cancer cells and T cells under various experimental conditions. This dataset offers a rich source of information and presents a complex challenge for image classification due to the diversity of conditions and cell behaviors involved. Our study thoroughly compares different architectural models on this new dataset, demonstrating the superior performance of our proposed architecture. Through experimental analysis and ablation studies, we provide substantial evidence of the benefits offered by our architecture, not only in terms of accuracy but also in its ability to reveal deeper insights into the data. This work advances the field of image classification and opens new possibilities for understanding complex biological processes through computer vision.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madden-Hennessey, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Urbani, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nikkhoi, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramasubramanian, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>G. Venugopal, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>L. Smith, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.28.609577</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High-throughput Image-based Clustering of CAR-T/Tumor Cocultures for Rapid and Facile Hit Identification]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.29.609126v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Balanced Mind and its Intrinsic Neural Timescales in Advanced Meditators 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.29.609126v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A balanced mind, or equanimity, cultivated through meditation and other spiritual practices, is considered one of the highest mental states. Its core features include deidentification and non-duality. Despite its significance, its neural correlates remain unknown. To address this, we acquired 128-channel EEG data (n = 103) from advanced and novice meditators (from the Isha Yoga tradition) and controls during an internal attention (breath-watching) and an external attention task (visual-oddball paradigm). We calculated the auto-correlation window (ACW), a measure of brains intrinsic neural timescales (INTs) and assessed equanimity through self-report questionnaires. Advanced meditators showed higher levels of equanimity and shorter duration of INTs (shorter ACW) during breath-watching, indicating deidentification with mental contents. Furthermore, they demonstrated no significant differences in INTs between tasks, indicating non-dual awareness. Finally, shorter duration of INTs correlated with the participants subjective perceptions of equanimity. In conclusion, we show that the shorter duration of brains INT may serve as a neural marker of equanimity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Malipeddi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sasidharan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venugopal, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ventura, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bauer, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>P.N., R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehrotra, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>John, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kutty, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Northoff, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.29.609126</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Balanced Mind and its Intrinsic Neural Timescales in Advanced Meditators]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.609714v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Aerosol delivery of immunotherapy and Hesperetin-loaded nanoparticles increases survival in a murine lung cancer model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.609714v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PurposeStudies have shown that flavonoids like Hesperetin, an ACE2 receptor agonist with antioxidant and pro-apoptotic activity, can induce apoptosis in cancer cells. ACE2 receptors are abundant in lung cancer cells. Here, we explored the application of Hesperetin bound to PLGA-coated nanoparticles (Hesperetin-nanoparticles, HNPs), and anti-CD40 antibody as an aerosol treatment for lung tumor-bearing mice.

MethodsIn-vitro and in-vivo studies were performed in human A549 (ATCC) and murine LLC1 (ATCC) lung cancer cell lines. Hesperetin Nanoparticles (HNP) of about 60nm diameter were engineered using a nano-formulation microfluidic technique. A syngeneic orthotopic murine model of lung adenoma was generated in wild (+/+) C57/BL6 background mice with luciferase-positive cell line LLC1 cells. Lung tumor-bearing mice were treated via aerosol inhalation with HNP, anti-CD40 antibody, or both. Survival was used to analyze the efficacy of aerosol treatment. Cohorts were also analyzed for body condition score, weight, and liver and kidney function.

ResultsAnalysis of an orthotopic murine lung cancer model demonstrates a differential uptake of the HNP and anti-CD40 by cancer cells relative to normal cells. A higher survival rate, relative to untreated controls, was observed when aerosol treatment with HNP was added to treatment via anti-CD40 (p<0.001), as compared to CD40 alone (p<0.01). Moreover, 2 out of 9 tumor-bearing mice survived long term, and their tumors diminished. These 2 mice were shown to be refractory to subsequent development of subcutaneous tumors, indicating systemic resilience to tumor formation.

ConclusionWe successfully established increased therapeutic efficacy of anti-CD40 and HNP in an orthotopic murine lung cancer model using inhalation-based administration. Our findings open the possibility of improved lung cancer treatment using flavonoids and immuno-adjuvants.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yasmin-Karim, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richards, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fam, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ogurek, A.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sridhar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makrigiorgos, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.30.609714</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Aerosol delivery of immunotherapy and Hesperetin-loaded nanoparticles increases survival in a murine lung cancer model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610386v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Creating anatomically-derived, standardized, customizable, and three-dimensional printable head caps for functional neuroimaging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610386v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AbstractO_ST_ABSSignificanceC_ST_ABSConsistent and accurate probe placement is a crucial step towards enhancing the reproducibility of longitudinal and group-based functional neuroimaging studies. While the selection of headgear is central to these efforts, there does not currently exist a standardized design that can accommodate diverse probe configurations and experimental procedures.

AimWe aim to provide the community with an open-source software pipeline for conveniently creating low-cost, 3-D printable neuroimaging head caps with anatomically significant landmarks integrated into the structure of the cap.

ApproachWe utilize our advanced 3-D head mesh generation toolbox and 10-20 head landmark calculations to quickly convert a subjects anatomical scan or an atlas into a 3-D printable head cap model. The 3-D modeling environment of the open-source Blender platform permits advanced mesh processing features to customize the cap. The design process is streamlined into a Blender add-on named "NeuroCaptain".

ResultsUsing the intuitive user interface, we create various head cap models using brain atlases, and share those with the community. The resulting mesh-based head cap designs are readily 3-D printable using off-the-shelf printers and filaments while accurately preserving the head topology and landmarks.

ConclusionsThe methods developed in this work result in a widely accessible tool for community members to design, customize and fabricate caps that incorporate anatomically derived landmarks. This not only permits person-alized head cap designs to achieve improved accuracy, but also offers an open platform for the community to propose standardizable head caps to facilitate multi-centered data collection and sharing.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McCann, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yen, F.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joseph, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.30.610386</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Creating anatomically-derived, standardized, customizable, and three-dimensional printable head caps for functional neuroimaging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610498v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dissecting reversible and irreversible single cell state transitions from gene regulatory networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610498v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Understanding cell state transitions and their governing regulatory mechanisms remains one of the fundamental questions in biology. We develop a computational method, state transition inference using cross-cell correlations (STICCC), for predicting reversible and irreversible cell state transitions at single-cell resolution by using gene expression data and a set of gene regulatory interactions. The method is inspired by the fact that the gene expression time delays between regulators and targets can be exploited to infer past and future gene expression states. From applications to both simulated and experimental single-cell gene expression data, we show that STICCC-inferred vector fields capture basins of attraction and irreversible fluxes. By connecting regulatory information with systems dynamical behaviors, STICCC reveals how network interactions influence reversible and irreversible state transitions. Compared to existing methods that infer pseudotime and RNA velocity, STICCC provides complementary insights into the gene regulation of cell state transitions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ramirez, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.30.610498</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dissecting reversible and irreversible single cell state transitions from gene regulatory networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610534v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Validation studies and multi-omics analysis of Zhx2 as a candidate quantitative trait gene underlying brain oxycodone metabolite (oxymorphone) levels and behavior 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610534v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sensitivity to the subjective reinforcing properties of opioids has a genetic component and can predict addiction liability of opioid compounds. We previously identified Zhx2 as a candidate gene underlying increased brain concentration of the oxycodone (OXY) metabolite oxymorphone (OMOR) in BALB/cJ (J) versus BALB/cByJ (By) females that could increase OXY state-dependent reward. A large structural intronic variant is associated with a robust reduction of Zhx2 expression in J mice, which we hypothesized enhances OMOR levels and OXY addiction-like behaviors. We tested this hypothesis by restoring the Zhx2 loss-of-function in Js (MVKO) and modeling the loss-of-function variant through knocking out the Zhx2 coding exon (E3KO) in Bys and assessing brain OXY metabolite levels and behavior. Consistent with our hypothesis, Zhx2 E3KO females showed an increase in brain OMOR levels and OXY-induced locomotor activity. However, contrary to our hypothesis, state-dependent expression of OXY-CPP was decreased in E3KO females and increased in E3KO males. We also overexpressed Zhx2 in the livers and brains of Js and observed Zhx2 overexpression in select brain regions that was associated with reduced OXY state-dependent learning. Integrative transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of E3KO mice identified astrocyte function, cell adhesion, extracellular matrix properties, and endothelial cell functions as pathways influencing brain OXY metabolite concentration and behavior. These results support Zhx2 as a quantitative trait gene underlying brain OMOR concentration that is associated with changes in OXY behavior and implicate potential quantitative trait mechanisms that together inform our overall understanding of Zhx2 in brain function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lynch, W. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miracle, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstein, S. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beierle, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhandari, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerhardt, E. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farnan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, B.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wingfield, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kazerani, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saavedra, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Averin, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baskin, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferris, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reilly, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emili, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bryant, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.30.610534</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Validation studies and multi-omics analysis of Zhx2 as a candidate quantitative trait gene underlying brain oxycodone metabolite (oxymorphone) levels and behavior]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610549v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Chronic mitochondrial fragmentation elicits a neuroprotective Warburg-like effect in Drosophila neurons 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610549v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mitochondrial fission and fusion are dynamic and important cellular processes, but the roles of these two very different mitochondrial forms - predominantly spherical and tubular - are not well-characterized in neurons of animals and especially in aging neurons. This is important because neurons are long-lived and mitochondrial dynamics is associated with neurodegenerative diseases. We used here an efficient cell type-specific CRISPR approach to knockout key fission-fusion genes and disrupt mitochondrial dynamics within the inessential clock neurons of Drosophila. Surprisingly, fusion is much more important than fission for maintaining long-term neuronal function. Neurons survive chronic mitochondrial fragmentation due to loss of fusion by triggering a cancer-like transcriptomic response. This Warburg effect includes ATF4-mediated upregulation of the aerobic glycolysis gene Lactate dehydrogenase (Ldh), and LDH is essential to prevent neurodegeneration of neurons deficient in the fusion gene Opa1. These results and others provide insights into the intersection of neuronal metabolism, aging and neurodegeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Richhariya, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlichting, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosbash, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.30.610549</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Chronic mitochondrial fragmentation elicits a neuroprotective Warburg-like effect in Drosophila neurons]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.02.610808v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mitochondrial direct repeat reduction as a strategy for enhancing human longevity: the case of the common repeat 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.02.610808v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Aging, characterized by a series of functional declines correlated with advancing chronological age, has a significant mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) component, with somatic mtDNA deletions playing a central role. In post-mitotic or slow-dividing cells like neurons and skeletal muscles, selfish mtDNA deletions clonally expand within a cell, ultimately leading to the deterioration and death of host cells and appearence of age-related phenotypes. Thus reducing the burden of somatic deletions could have far- reaching systemic benefits for the entire human body. Given the crucial role of direct nucleotide repeats in the formation of mitochondrial deletions, we hypothesize that minimizing these repeats in the human mitochondrial genome could enhance healthspan by decreasing somatic deletions. To investigate this hypothesis, we focus on the "common repeat", a 13-base pair perfect direct repeat sequence (ACCTCCCTCACCA) located at positions 8470-8482 and 13447-13459, respectively. This perfect repeat: (i) is highly prevalent, with its potential deleterious consequences affecting the majority of humans; (ii) represents one of the most fragile sites, highly prone to forming deletions; (iii) when disrupted, is associated with a decreased somatic deletion load and enhanced human healthspan; (iv) is likely to experience positive selection in the present or near future due to indirect fitness effects, such as the "grandmother effect", and direct fitness effects, such as (v) a decreased mutation rate. These observations support the argument that reducing the mtDNA somatic deletion load through targeted disruption of these repeats, or by using naturally occurring polymorphisms with disrupted repeats in mitochondrial medicine, could be an effective approach to increasing human longevity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shamanskiy, V. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunbin, K. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tretiakov, E. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazunin, I. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skripskaya, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mihailova, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mikhailova, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ree, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Timonina, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knorre, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunz, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okada, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fiorell, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reymond, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bazykin, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fellay, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tanaka, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.02.610808</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mitochondrial direct repeat reduction as a strategy for enhancing human longevity: the case of the common repeat]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.03.611001v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Olfactory Mucosa-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Differentiate Towards a Schwann Cell-Like Phenotype Towards Sourcing for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.03.611001v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a promising source of stem cells for treating peripheral nerve injuries. Here, we present the first investigation of differentiation of olfactory mucosa-derived MSC (OM-MSC) towards a Schwann Cell (SC)-like phenotype. OM-MSCs are an advantageous potential source of SCs for peripheral nerve repair, as isolation can be accomplished with a minimally invasive procedure compared to autologous nerve harvest and isolation. Here, Schwann Cell Conditioned Media (SCCM) or a defined growth factor supplemented media (GF) was applied to OM-MSC for twenty-one days. The differentiation process and resulting populations were characterized by immunocytochemistry and RT-qPCR. Functionality of differentiated populations was assessed in an in vitro co-culture model to evaluate interaction with sensory neurons (dorsal root ganglia) juxtaposed to native SCs. Compared to undifferentiated MSCs, differentiation protocols resulted in significant changes in morphology, gene expression, and functionality using SCCM and GF media, representing key characteristics of SCs. Specifically, differentiated populations exhibit elongated, spindle-like morphologies, a high degree of eccentricity, increased S-100, CD44, and NGF expression, and colocalization of myelin basic proteins with neurites in the co-culture model. In conclusion, this work highlights the potential of OM-MSCs to be expanded and differentiated to SCs to improve synthetic scaffolds or for use in decellularized allografts for nerve repair.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Neuman, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.03.611001</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Olfactory Mucosa-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Differentiate Towards a Schwann Cell-Like Phenotype Towards Sourcing for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.03.611016v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Tensions on the actin cytoskeleton and apical cell junctions in the C. elegans spermatheca are influenced by spermathecal anatomy, ovulation state and activation of myosin 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.03.611016v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cells generate mechanical forces mainly through myosin motor activity on the actin cytoskeleton. In C. elegans, actomyosin stress fibers drive contractility of the smooth muscle-like cells of the spermatheca, a distensible, tube-shaped tissue in the hermaphrodite reproductive system and the site of oocyte fertilization. Stretching of the spermathecal cells by oocyte entry triggers activation of the small GTPase Rho. In this study, we asked how forces are distributed in vivo using the spermatheca, and explored how this tissue responds to alterations in myosin activity. Using laser ablation, we show that the basal actomyosin fibers are under tension in the occupied spermatheca. Reducing actomyosin contractility by depletion of the phospholipase C-{varepsilon}/PLC-1 or non-muscle myosin II/NMY-1, leads to distended spermathecae occupied by one or more embryos, but does not alter tension on the basal actomyosin fibers. This suggests that much of the tension on the basal actin fibers in the occupied spermatheca is due to the presence of the embryo. However, activating myosin through depletion of the Rho GAP SPV-1 increases tension on the actomyosin fibers, consistent with earlier studies showing Rho drives spermathecal contractility. On the inner surface of the spermathecal tube, tension on the apical junctions is decreased by depletion of PLC-1 and NMY-1. Surprisingly, when basal contractility is increased through SPV-1 depletion, the tension on apical junctions also decreases, with the most significant effect on the junctions aligned in perpendicular to the axis of the spermatheca. This suggests tension on the outer basal surface may compress the apical side, and suggests the three-dimensional shape of the spermatheca plays a role in force distribution and contractility during ovulation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sadeghian, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grooms, N. W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.03.611016</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Tensions on the actin cytoskeleton and apical cell junctions in the C. elegans spermatheca are influenced by spermathecal anatomy, ovulation state and activation of myosin]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.04.611211v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Understanding therapeutic tolerance through a mathematical model of drug-induced resistance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.04.611211v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
There is growing recognition that phenotypic plasticity enables cancer cells to adapt to various environmental conditions. An example of this adaptability is the persistence of an initially sensitive population of cancer cells in the presence of therapeutic agents. Understanding the implications of this druginduced resistance is essential for predicting transient and long-term tumor tumor dynamics subject to treatment. This paper introduces a mathematical model of this phenomenon of drug-induced resistance which provides excellent fits to time-resolved in vitro experimental data. From observational data of total numbers of cells, the model unravels the relative proportions of sensitive and resistance subpopulations, and quantifies their dynamics as a function of drug dose. The predictions are then validated using data on drug doses which were not used when fitting parameters. The model is then used, in conjunction with optimal control techniques, in order to discover dosing strategies that might lead to better outcomes as quantified by lower total cell volume.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gevertz, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greene, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Comandante-Lou, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prosperi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.04.611211</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Understanding therapeutic tolerance through a mathematical model of drug-induced resistance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.05.611537v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
NetMedPy: A Python package for Large-Scale Network Medicine Screening 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.05.611537v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SummaryNetwork medicine leverages the quantification of information flow within sub-cellular networks to elucidate disease etiology and comorbidity, as well as to predict drug efficacy and identify potential therapeutic targets. However, current Network Medicine toolsets often lack computationally efficient data processing pipelines that support diverse scoring functions, network distance metrics, and null models. These limitations hamper their application in large-scale molecular screening, hypothesis testing, and ensemble modeling. To address these challenges, we introduce NetMedPy, a highly efficient and versatile computational package designed for comprehensive Network Medicine analyses.

AvailabilityNetMedPy is an open-source Python package under an MIT license. Source code, documentation, and installation instructions can be downloaded from https://github.com/menicgiulia/NetMedPy and https://pypi.org/project/NetMedPy. The package can run on any standard desktop computer or computing cluster.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Aldana, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sebek, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ispirova, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dorantes-Gilardi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loscalzo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menichetti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.05.611537</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[NetMedPy: A Python package for Large-Scale Network Medicine Screening]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.10.612089v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Associations on the Fly, a new feature aiming to facilitate exploration of the Open Targets Platform evidence 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.10.612089v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationThe Open Targets Platform (https://platform.opentargets.org) is a unique, comprehensive, open-source resource supporting systematic identification and prioritisation of targets for drug discovery. The Platform combines, harmonises and integrates data from >20 diverse sources to provide target-disease associations, covering evidence derived from genetic associations, somatic mutations, known drugs, differential expression, animal models, pathways and systems biology. An in-house target identification scoring framework weighs the evidence from each data source and type, contributing to an overall score for each of the 7.8M target-disease associations. However, the previous infrastructure did not allow user-led dynamic adjustments in the contribution of different evidence types for target prioritisation, a limitation frequently raised by our user community. Furthermore, the previous Platform user interface did not support navigation and exploration of the underlying target-disease evidence on the same page, occasionally making the user journey counterintuitive.

ResultsHere, we describe "Associations on the Fly" (AOTF), a new Platform feature - developed as part of a wider product refactoring project - to enable formulation of more flexible and impactful therapeutic hypotheses through dynamic adjustment of the weight of contributing evidence from each source, altering the prioritisation of targets.

Availability and implementationAll Open Targets code is available as open source: [https://github.com/opentargets].

This tool was implemented using React v18 and its code is accessible here: [https://github.com/opentargets/ot-ui-apps].

The tools described in the paper are accessible through the Open Targets Platform web interface [https://platform.opentargets.org/] and GraphQL API (https://platform-docs.opentargets.org/data-access/graphql-api).

Data is available for download here: [https://platform.opentargets.org/downloads] and from the EMBL-EBI FTP: [https://ftp.ebi.ac.uk/pub/databases/opentargets/platform/].

Supplementary informationAdditional information on this tool can be found on the Platform documentation pages [https://platform-docs.opentargets.org/web-interface, https://platform-docs.opentargets.org/web-interface/associations-on-the-fly, https://platform-docs.opentargets.org/target-prioritisation] and training video [https://youtu.be/2A9bksboAag].

ContactAnnalisa Buniello, EMBL-EBI, buniello@ebi.ac.uk
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cruz-Castillo, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fumis, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehta, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martinez-Osorio, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roldan-Romero, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cornu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uniyal, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Solano-Roman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carmona, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ochoa, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDonagh, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buniello, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.10.612089</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Associations on the Fly, a new feature aiming to facilitate exploration of the Open Targets Platform evidence]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.12.612669v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mindfulness-based Neurofeedback: A Systematic Review of EEG and fMRI studies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.12.612669v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neurofeedback concurrent with mindfulness meditation may reveal meditation effects on the brain and facilitate improved mental health outcomes. Here, we systematically reviewed EEG and fMRI studies of mindfulness meditation with neurofeedback (mbNF) and followed PRISMA guidelines. We identified 10 fMRI reports, consisting of 177 unique participants, and 9 EEG reports, consisting of 242 participants. Studies of fMRI focused primarily on downregulating the default-mode network (DMN). Although studies found decreases in DMN activations during neurofeedback, there is a lack of evidence for transfer effects, and the majority of studies did not employ adequate controls, e.g. sham neurofeedback. Accordingly, DMN decreases may have been confounded by general task-related deactivation. EEG studies typically examined alpha, gamma, and theta frequency bands, with the most robust evidence supporting the modulation of theta band activity. Both EEG and fMRI mbNF have been implemented with high fidelity in clinical populations. However, the mental health benefits of mbNF have not been established. In general, mbNF studies would benefit from sham-controlled RCTs, as well as clear reporting (e.g. CRED-NF).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Treves, I. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greene, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bajwa, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wool, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bauer, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloom, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pagliaccio, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auerbach, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.12.612669</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mindfulness-based Neurofeedback: A Systematic Review of EEG and fMRI studies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.12.612702v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Capturing sclera anisotropy using direct collagen fiber models. Linking microstructure to macroscopic mechanical properties. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.12.612702v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Because of the crucial role of collagen fibers on soft tissue mechanics, there is great interest in techniques to incorporate them in computational models. Recently we introduced a direct fiber modeling approach for sclera based on representing the long-interwoven fibers. Our method differs from the conventional continuum approach to modeling sclera that homogenizes the fibers and describes them as statistical distributions for each element. At large scale our method captured gross collagen fiber bundle architecture from histology and experimental intraocular pressure-induced deformations. At small scale, a direct fiber model of a sclera sample reproduced equi-biaxial experimental behavior from the literature. In this study our goal was a much more challenging task for the direct fiber modeling: to capture specimen-specific 3D fiber architecture and anisotropic mechanics of four sclera samples tested under equibiaxial and four non-equibiaxial loadings. Samples of sclera from three eyes were isolated and tested in five biaxial loadings following an approach previously reported. Using microstructural architecture from polarized light microscopy we then created specimen-specific direct fiber models. Model fiber orientations agreed well with the histological information (adjusted R2s>0.89). Through an inverse-fitting process we determined model characteristics, including specimen-specific fiber mechanical properties to match equibiaxial loading. Interestingly, the equibiaxial properties also reproduced all the non-equibiaxial behaviors. These results indicate that the direct fiber modeling method naturally accounted for tissue anisotropy within its fiber structure. Direct fiber modeling is therefore a promising approach to understand how macroscopic behavior arises from microstructure.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ji, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Islam, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sebastian, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schilpp, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hua, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amini, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sigal, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.12.612702</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Capturing sclera anisotropy using direct collagen fiber models. Linking microstructure to macroscopic mechanical properties.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.13.612776v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural and immunological characterization of the H3 influenza hemagglutinin during antigenic drift 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.13.612776v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The quest for a universal influenza vaccine holds great promise for mitigating the global burden of influenza-related morbidity and mortality. However, challenges persist in identifying conserved epitopes capable of inducing protection. In this study, we explore the influence of glycan evolution on H3 hemagglutinin from 1968 to present day and its impacts on antigenicity and immunogenicity. We observe that the appearance of potential N-linked glycosylation sites in Sing/16 hemagglutinin head domain reduces the binding of broadly neutralizing antibodies and shifts the polyclonal immune response upon vaccination to target the stem. Furthermore, structural characterization of HK/68 and Sing/16 by cryo-electron microscopy shows that while HK/68 is resistant to enzymatic deglycosylation, removal of glycans destabilizes the hyperglycosylated head and membrane-proximal region in Sing/16. These insights expand our understanding of glycans beyond their role in protein folding and highlight the interplay among glycan integration and immune recognition to design a universal influenza vaccine.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>de Paiva Froes Rocha, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tomris, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowman, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stevens, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kantorow, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oeverdieck, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferguson, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jung, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herfst, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snijder, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakraborty, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torrents de la Pena, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berndsen, Z. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Vries, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ward, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.13.612776</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural and immunological characterization of the H3 influenza hemagglutinin during antigenic drift]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.17.611902v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Calibration of additional computational tools expands ClinGen recommendation options for variant classification with PP3/BP4 criteria 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.17.611902v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PurposeWe previously developed an approach to calibrate computational tools for clinical variant classification, updating recommendations for the reliable use of variant impact predictors to provide evidence strength up to Strong. A new generation of tools using distinctive approaches have since been released, and these methods must be independently calibrated for clinical application.

MethodUsing our local posterior probability-based calibration and our established data set of ClinVar pathogenic and benign variants, we determined the strength of evidence provided by three new tools (AlphaMissense, ESM1b, VARITY) and calibrated scores meeting each evidence strength. Results

All three tools reached the Strong level of evidence for variant pathogenicity and Moderate for benignity, though sometimes for few variants. Compared to previously recommended tools, these yielded at best only modest improvements in the tradeoffs of evidence strength and false positive predictions.

ConclusionAt calibrated thresholds, three new computational predictors provided evidence for variant pathogenicity at similar strength to the four previously recommended predictors (and comparable with functional assays for some variants). This calibration broadens the scope of computational tools for application in clinical variant classification. Their new approaches offer promise for future advancement of the field.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bergquist, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stenton, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nadeau, E. A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byrne, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenblatt, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrison, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tavtigian, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Donnell-Luria, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Biesecker, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenner, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pejaver, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>ClinGen Sequence Variant Interpretation Working Group,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.17.611902</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Calibration of additional computational tools expands ClinGen recommendation options for variant classification with PP3/BP4 criteria]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.17.613453v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Strategic Blend of Stabilizing Polymers to Control Particle Surface Charge for Enhanced Mucus Transport and Cell Binding 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.17.613453v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mucus layers, viscoelastic gels abundant in anionic mucin glycoproteins, obstruct therapeutic delivery across all mucosal surfaces. We found that strongly positively charged nanoparticles (NPs) rapidly adsorb a mucin protein corona in mucus, impeding cell binding and uptake. To overcome this, we developed mucus-evading, cell-adhesive (MECS) NPs with variable surface charge using Flash NanoPrecipitation, by blending a neutral poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) corona for mucus transport with a small amount, 5 wt%, of polycationic dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (PDMAEMA) for increased cell targeting. In vitro experiments confirmed rapid mucus penetration and binding to epithelial cells by MECS NPs, suggesting a breakthrough in mucosal drug delivery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stevens, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sevarika, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, C.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carcamo-Oyarce, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Degen, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kassis, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lehr, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carrier, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ribbeck, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prud'homme, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.17.613453</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Strategic Blend of Stabilizing Polymers to Control Particle Surface Charge for Enhanced Mucus Transport and Cell Binding]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.18.613544v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Development and extensive sequencing of a broadly-consented Genome in a Bottle matched tumor-normal pair for somatic benchmarks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.18.613544v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Genome in a Bottle Consortium (GIAB), hosted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is developing new matched tumor-normal samples, the first to be explicitly consented for public dissemination of genomic data and cell lines. Here, we describe a comprehensive genomic dataset from the first individual, HG008, including DNA from an adherent, epithelial-like pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumor cell line and matched normal cells from duodenal and pancreatic tissues. Data for the tumor-normal matched samples comes from seventeen distinct state-of-the-art whole genome measurement technologies, including high depth short and long-read bulk whole genome sequencing (WGS), single cell WGS, and Hi-C, and karyotyping. In future publications, these data will be used by the GIAB Consortium to develop matched tumor-normal benchmarks for somatic variant detection. We expect these data to facilitate innovation for whole genome measurement technologies, de novo assembly of tumor and normal genomes, and bioinformatic tools to identify small and structural somatic mutations. This first-of-its-kind broadly consented open-access resource will facilitate further understanding of sequencing methods used for cancer biology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McDaniel, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olson, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, H.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmitt, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sikkink, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sedlazeck, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doddapaneni, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jhangiani, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muzny, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gingras, M.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehta, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paulin, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hastie, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, H.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weigman, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rojas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kennedy, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Remington, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sudkamp, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiseman, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lajoie, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levy, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akeson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Narzisi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steinsnyder, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reeves, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shelton, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kingan, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lambert, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayabyan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wenger, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McLaughlin, I. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adamson, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kingsley, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wescott, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paten, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Violich, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miga, K. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gardner, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNul</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.18.613544</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Development and extensive sequencing of a broadly-consented Genome in a Bottle matched tumor-normal pair for somatic benchmarks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.18.613692v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Human Mesofluidic Intestinal Model for Studying Transport of Drug Carriers and Bacteria Through a Live Mucosal Barrier 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.18.613692v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The intestinal mucosal barrier forms a critical interface between lumen contents such as bacteria, drugs, and drug carriers and the underlying tissue. Current in vitro intestinal models, while recapitulating certain aspects of this barrier, generally present challenges with respect to imaging transport across mucus and uptake into enterocytes. A human mesofluidic small intestinal chip was designed to enable facile visualization of a mucosal interface created by growing primary human intestinal cells on a vertical hydrogel wall separating channels representing the intestinal lumen and circulatory flow. Type I collagen, fortified via cross-linking to prevent deformation and leaking during culture, was identified as a suitable gel wall material for supporting primary organoid-derived human duodenal epithelial cell attachment and monolayer formation. Addition of DAPT and PGE2 to culture medium paired with air-liquid interface culture increased the thickness of the mucus layer on epithelium grown within the device for 5 days from approximately 5 mm to 50 m, making the model suitable for revealing intriguing features of interactions between luminal contents and the mucus barrier using live cell imaging. Time-lapse imaging of nanoparticle diffusion within mucus revealed a zone adjacent to the epithelium largely devoid of nanoparticles up to 4.5 hr after introduction to the lumen channel, as well as pockets of dimly lectin-stained mucus within which particles freely diffused, and apparent clumping of particles by mucus components. Multiple particle tracking conducted on the intact mucus layer in the chip revealed significant size-dependent differences in measured diffusion coefficients. E. coli introduced to the lumen channel were freely mobile within the mucus layer and appeared to intermittently contact the epithelial surface over 30 minute periods of culture. Mucus shedding into the lumen and turnover of mucus components within cells were visualized. Taken together, this system represents a powerful tool for visualization of interactions between luminal contents and an intact live mucosal barrier.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, C.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oberoi, H. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Law, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kassis, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffith, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breault, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carrier, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.18.613692</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Human Mesofluidic Intestinal Model for Studying Transport of Drug Carriers and Bacteria Through a Live Mucosal Barrier]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.23.614467v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Building plumbing influences the microdiversity and community assembly of the drinking water microbiome. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.23.614467v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Building plumbing microbial communities can significantly influence water quality at the point of use, particularly during periods of stagnation. Thus, a fine-scale understanding of factors governing community membership and structure, as well as environmental and ecological factors shaping building plumbing microbial communities is critical. In this study, we utilized full-length 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing to investigate the microdiversity and spatial-temporal dynamics of microbial communities in commercial and residential building plumbing systems. Bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) within commercial buildings exhibited much lower microdiversity relative to the same OTUs in residential buildings. Microdiversity was associated with higher persistence and relative abundance of OTUs. Interestingly, amplicon sequencing variants within the same OTUs exhibited habitat preferences based on the building type while also demonstrating varying temporal turnover patterns. Dispersal limitation disproportionately governed community assembly in commercial buildings, whereas heterogeneous selection was the dominant ecological mechanism shaping the microbial community in residential buildings. Dispersal limitation in commercial buildings is consistent with larger building sizes and greater periods of water stagnation. Interestingly, the inability to explain the extent of heterogeneous selection-driven community assembly in residential locations using measured water chemistry may suggest a disproportionately large effect of fine-scale variation in plumbing characteristics on community assembly in residential locations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>He, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oosthuizen-Vosloo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stubbins, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoon, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.23.614467</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Building plumbing influences the microdiversity and community assembly of the drinking water microbiome.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.23.614484v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Higher-order and distributed synergistic functional interactions encode information gain in goal-directed learning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.23.614484v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Goal-directed learning arises from distributed neural circuits including the prefrontal, posterior parietal and temporal cortices. However, the role of cortico-cortical functional interactions remains unclear. To address this question, we integrated information dynamics analysis with magnetoencephalography to investigate the encoding of learning signals through neural interactions. Our findings revealed that information gain (the reduction in uncertainty about the causal relationship between actions and outcomes) is represented over the visual, parietal, lateral prefrontal and ventromedial/orbital prefrontal cortices. Cortico-cortical interactions encoded information gain synergistically at the level of pairwise and higher-order relations, such as triplets and quadruplets. Higher-order synergistic interactions were characterized by long-range relationships centered in the ventromedial and orbitofrontal cortices, which served as key receivers in the broadcast of information gain across cortical circuits. Overall, this study provides evidence that information gain is encoded through synergistic and higher-order functional interactions and is broadcast to prefrontal reward circuits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Combrisson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basanisi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auzias, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marinazzo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panzeri, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brovelli, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.23.614484</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Higher-order and distributed synergistic functional interactions encode information gain in goal-directed learning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.23.614612v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
3D spatial distribution of Sost mRNA and Sclerostin expression in response to in vivo mechanical loading 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.23.614612v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bones adapt to external mechanical loads through a process known as mechanoadaptation. Osteocytes are the bone cells that sense the mechanical environment and initiate a biological response. Investigating the changes in osteocyte molecular expression following mechanical loading has been instrumental in characterizing the regulatory pathways involved in bone adaptation. However, current methods for examining osteocyte molecular expression do not preserve the three-dimensional structure of the bone, which plays a critical role in the mechanical stimuli sensed by the osteocytes and their spatially controlled biological responses.

In this study, we used WISH-BONE to investigate the spatial distribution of Sost-mRNA transcripts and its encoded protein, sclerostin, in 3D mouse tibia midshaft following in vivo tibia loading. Our findings showed a decrease in the percentage of Sost-positive osteocytes predominantly at 25% and 37% of the bone length, and in the posterior-lateral side of the tibia after loading. Sclerostin-positive osteocytes in the loaded legs were found to be similar to the contralateral legs after 2 weeks of loading.

This work is the first to provide a 3D analysis of Sost and sclerostin distribution in loaded versus contralateral mouse tibia midshafts. It also highlights the importance of the bone region analyzed and the method utilized when interpreting mechanoadaptation results. WISH-BONE represents a powerful tool for further characterization of mechanosensitive genes regulation in bone and holds potential for advancing the development of new treatments targeting mechanosensitivity-related bone disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Meslier, Q. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oehrlein, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kurczy, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shefelbine, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.23.614612</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[3D spatial distribution of Sost mRNA and Sclerostin expression in response to in vivo mechanical loading]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.24.614648v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Which perceptual categories do observers experience during multistable perception? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.24.614648v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multistable perceptual phenomena provide insights into the minds dynamic states within a stable external environment and the neural underpinnings of these consciousness changes are often studied with binocular rivalry. Conventional methods to study binocular rivalry suffer from biases and assumptions that limit their ability to describe the continuous nature of this perceptual transitions and to discover what kind of percept was perceived across time. In this study, we propose a novel way to avoid those shortcomings by combining a continuous psychophysical method that estimates introspection during binocular rivalry with machine learning clustering and transition probability analysis. This combination of techniques reveals individual variability and complexity of perceptual experience in 28 normally sighted participants. Also, the analysis of transition probabilities between perceptual categories, i.e., exclusive and different kinds of mixed percepts, suggest that interocular perceptual competition, triggered by low-level stimuli, involves conflict between monocular and binocular neural processing sites rather than mutual inhibition of monocular sites.

Layman abstractWhen our brain receives ambiguous information about the world, it changes its interpretation between different alternatives and thereby provides insight into how the mind works. Scientists often use a technique called binocular rivalry, where each eye sees a different image, to provoke an ambiguous visual world that is perceived as ongoing competition among interpretations of the two eyes inputs. Traditional methods for studying binocular rivalry struggle to describe the continuous nature of this fluctuation and to estimate the range of different perceived experiences. We have created a new approach in which participants reproduce their ongoing perceptual experiences combined machine learning analyses of these states. We found that individuals visual experience is more varied and complex than previously thought. Our results suggest that when our eyes see conflicting images, the brains effort to make sense of what is seen involves syntheses among both monocular and binocular brain areas, not just competition between monocular areas.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Skerswetat, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.24.614648</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Which perceptual categories do observers experience during multistable perception?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.26.615300v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Novel color vision assessment tool: AIM Color Detection and Discrimination 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.26.615300v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Color vision assessment is essential in clinical practice, yet different tests exhibit distinct strengths and limitations. Here we apply a psychophysical paradigm, Angular Indication Measurement (AIM) for color detection and discrimination. AIM is designed to address some of the shortcomings of existing tests, such as prolonged testing time, limited accuracy and sensitivity, and the necessity for clinician oversight. AIM presents adaptively generated charts, each a NxM (here 4x4) grid of stimuli, and participants are instructed to indicate either the orientation of the gap in a cone-isolating Landolt C optotype or the orientation of the edge between two colors in an equiluminant color space. The contrasts or color differences of the stimuli are adaptively selected for each chart based on performance of prior AIM charts. In a group of 23 color-normal and 15 people with color vision deficiency (CVD), we validate AIM color against Hardy-Rand-Rittler (HRR), Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue test (FM100), and anomaloscope color matching diagnosis and use machine learning techniques to classify the type and severity of CVD. The results show that AIM has classification accuracies comparable to that of the anomaloscope, and while HRR and FM100 are less accurate than AIM and an anomaloscope, HRR is very rapid. We conclude that AIM is a computer-based, self-administered, response-adaptive and rapid tool with high test-retest repeatability that has the potential to be suitable for both clinical and research applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>He, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skerswetat, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.26.615300</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Novel color vision assessment tool: AIM Color Detection and Discrimination]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.30.615551v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuronal activity regulating the dauer entry decision in Caenorhabditis elegans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.30.615551v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans can choose between two alternative developmental trajectories. Larvae can either become reproductive adults or, under conditions of crowding or low food availability, enter a long-term, stress-resistant diapause known as the dauer stage. Previous studies showed that chemical signals from a secreted larval pheromone promote the dauer trajectory, and that their influence can be antagonised by increased availability of microbial food. The decision is known to be under neuronal control, involving both sensory and interneurons. To make an accurate decision, larvae must collect and compare complex patterns of environmental input over several hours of early larval development. The full composition of this circuit and the algorithm for decision-making are unknown. Here, we used cell-specific chemical silencing to systematically perturb several sensory and interneurons to further elucidate circuit composition. Our results suggest a role for gas-sensing neurons in regulating dauer entry. In addition, we quantitatively characterized the neuronal responses to food and pheromone inputs by measuring calcium traces from ASI and AIA neurons. We found that calcium in ASI increases linearly in response to food, and similarly decreases in response to pheromone, revealing a cellular site of antagonism between these key chemical inputs. Notably, the ASI response persists well beyond removal of the food stimulus, thus encoding a memory of recent food exposure. In contrast, AIA reports instantaneous food availability, and is unaffected by pheromone. We discuss how these findings may inform our understanding of this long-term decision-making process.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Prakash, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seyedolmohadesin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gharib, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sternberg, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.30.615551</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuronal activity regulating the dauer entry decision in Caenorhabditis elegans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.30.615892v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multiple transcription factors regulate the expression of genes for error prone DNA polymerases in Acinetobacter baumannii 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.30.615892v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acinetobacter baumannii is an opportunistic pathogen causing several infections that are increasingly diSicult to treat due to its ability to rapidly gain antibiotic resistances. These resistances can arise due to mutations during the DNA damage response (DDR), through the activity of error-prone DNA polymerases, such as DNA polymerase V (DNA Pol V). Currently, the DDR in A. baumannii is not well understood and the regulation of genes encoding multiple copies of DNA Pol V is not fully characterized. Through genome wide mutagenesis, we have identified a novel TetR-like family regulator of genes that encode DNA Pol V, which we have named Error-prone polymerase regulator, EppR. We have found that EppR represses the expression of the genes encoding DNA Pol V and itself through direct binding to a conserved EppR motif in their promoters. Lastly, we show that EppR also regulates UmuDAb, previously identified as a regulator of genes encoding DNA Pol V. These two gene products are functionally required to ensure regulation of expression of genes encoding DNA Pol Vs and umuDAb. With these results, we propose a co-repressor model for the regulation of genes encoding DNA Pol V and umuDAb.



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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, B. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ching, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Macguire, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casula, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Newman, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Finley, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godoy, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.30.615892</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multiple transcription factors regulate the expression of genes for error prone DNA polymerases in Acinetobacter baumannii]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.30.615907v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Plasmodium falciparum NCR1 membrane protein is a novel antimalarial target that exports cholesterol to maintain membrane homeostasis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.30.615907v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Malaria is an extremely devastating parasitic infection that kills over half a million people each year. It is the leading cause of death in many developing countries, in part, due to a lack of resources and readily available therapeutics. Unfortunately, the most prevalent and deadliest causative agent of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, has developed resistance to nearly all currently available antimalarial drugs. The P. falciparum Niemann-Pick Type C1-related (PfNCR1) transporter has been identified as a druggable target, as it is required for membrane homeostasis of the parasite. However, the structure and detailed molecular mechanism of this membrane protein are not yet available. Here we present three structures of PfNCR1 both in the absence and presence of the functional inhibitor MMV009108 at resolutions between 2.98 [A] and 3.81 [A] using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). The data suggest that PfNCR1 binds cholesterol and forms a cholesterol transport tunnel to modulate the composition of the parasite plasma membrane. Cholesterol efflux assays substantiate this as they show that PfNCR1 is an exporter capable of extruding cholesterol from the membrane. Additionally, the inhibition mechanism of MMV009108 appears to be due to a direct blockage of PfNCR1, preventing this transporter from shuttling cholesterol.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lyu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandara, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Istvan, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tringides, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gregor, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miyagi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oberstaller, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adams, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>von Lintig, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldberg, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.30.615907</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Plasmodium falciparum NCR1 membrane protein is a novel antimalarial target that exports cholesterol to maintain membrane homeostasis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.02.616316v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Making Aptamers More Antibody-like: Targeting AXL in Vivo Using a Bottlebrush Polymer-Conjugated Aptamer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.02.616316v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The overexpression of receptor tyrosine kinase AXL is linked to acquired drug resistance in cancer treatments. Aptamers, acting as antibody surrogates, have been envisioned as potential inhibitors for AXL. However, aptamers face difficult pharmacological challenges including rapid degradation and clearance. Herein, we report a phosphodiester-backboned bottlebrush polymer as a carrier for conjugated aptamers. Termed pacDNA, the conjugate improves aptamer specificity in vivo, prolongs blood retention, and enhances overall aptamer bioactivity. Treatment with pacDNA in AXL-overexpressing cell lines significantly inhibits AXL phosphorylation, resulting in reduced cancer cell migration and invasion. In a non-small cell lung cancer xenograft model (NCI-H1299), pacDNA treatment leads to single-agent reduction in tumor growth. These results highlight the potential of bottlebrush polymers in the field of aptamer therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sun, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xue, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sidonia, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nenopoulos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tashkandi, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.02.616316</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Making Aptamers More Antibody-like: Targeting AXL in Vivo Using a Bottlebrush Polymer-Conjugated Aptamer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.03.616318v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bottlebrush polymers with sequence-controlled backbones for enhanced oligonucleotide delivery 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.03.616318v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The clinical translation of oligonucleotide-based thera-peutics continues to encounter challenges in delivery. In this study, we introduce a novel class of delivery vehicles for oligonucleotides, which are based on polyethylene glycol (PEG) bottlebrush polymers with sequence-defined backbones. Using solid-phase synthesis and bespoke phosphoramidites, the oligonucleotide and the polymer backbone can both be assembled on the solid support. The synthesis allows chemical modifiers such as carbon 18 (C18) units to be incorporated into the backbone in specific patterns to modulate the cell-materials interactions. Subsequently, PEG side chains were grafted onto the polymer segment of the resulting polymer-oligonucleotide conjugate, yielding bottlebrush polymers. We report an optimal pattern of the C18 modifier that leads to improved cellular uptake, plasma phar-macokinetics, biodistribution, and antisense activity in vivo. Our results provide valuable insights into the pacDNA structure-property relationship and suggest a possibility of tuning the polymer backbone to meet the specific delivery requirements of various diseases.



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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1a332e7org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1630ab1org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@15306dforg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e83f0e_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wei, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nenopoulos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oetheimer, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xue, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mona, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.03.616318</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bottlebrush polymers with sequence-controlled backbones for enhanced oligonucleotide delivery]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.04.616593v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Growth-coupled microbial biosynthesis of the animal pigment xanthommatin 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.04.616593v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The mining of genomes across life has unearthed a bounty of biosynthetic potential to diverse molecules key to a biobased future. While the heterologous expression of metabolic pathways has achieved broad success, most approaches suffer a similar fate in low initial production levels that require extensive, resource-heavy iterative strain engineering refinement. Herein we introduce a growth-coupled biosynthetic (GrowBio) strategy that irrevocably connects microbial growth with specialized compound production. We demonstrate the plug-and-play versatility of GrowBio in the production of the structurally complex animal biopigment xanthommatin, a color-changing ommochrome with material and cosmetic potential. Xanthommatin biosynthesis directly fuels growth of a newly designed Pseudomonas putida 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate auxotroph (PUMA). Aided by genome-scale metabolic modeling, PUMA was designed and built to be controlled by endogenous formate co-produced as a coupled biosynthetic byproduct in the multistep conversion of tryptophan to xanthommatin. Adaptive laboratory evolution was utilized to streamline xanthommatins gram-scale bioproduction via growth rate selection, establishing GrowBio as a promising biotechnological approach for establishing and optimizing the microbial production of value-added molecules.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bushin, L. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alter, T. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvan-Vargas, M. V. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dürr, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olson, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Avila, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Puiggene, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deravi, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feist, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nikel, P. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, B. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.04.616593</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Growth-coupled microbial biosynthesis of the animal pigment xanthommatin]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.08.617313v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inferring post-transcriptional regulation within and across cell types in human testis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.08.617313v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Single-cell tissue atlases commonly use RNA abundances as surrogates for protein abundances. Yet, protein abundance also depends on the regulation of protein synthesis and degradation rates. To estimate the contributions of such post transcriptional regulation, we quantified the proteomes of 5,883 single cells from human testis using 3 distinct mass spectrometry methods (SCoPE2, pSCoPE, and plexDIA). To distinguish between biological and technical factors contributing to differences between protein and RNA levels, we developed BayesPG, a Bayesian model of transcript and protein abundance that systematically accounts for technical variation and infers biological differences. We use BayesPG to jointly model RNA and protein data collected from 29,709 single cells across different methods and datasets. BayesPG estimated consensus mRNA and protein levels for 3,861 gene products and quantified the relative protein-to-mRNA ratio (rPTR) for each gene across six distinct cell types in samples from human testis. About 28% of the gene products exhibited significant differences at protein and RNA levels and contributed to about 1, 500 significant GO groups. We observe that specialized and context specific functions, such as those related to spermatogenesis are regulated after transcription. Among hundreds of detected post translationally modified peptides, many show significant abundance differences across cell types. Furthermore, some phosphorylated peptides covary with kinases in a cell-type dependent manner, suggesting cell-type specific regulation. Our results demonstrate the potential of inferring protein regulation in from single-cell proteogenomic data and provide a generalizable model, BayesPG, for performing such analyses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elcheikhali, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huffman, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Derks, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franks, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.08.617313</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inferring post-transcriptional regulation within and across cell types in human testis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.11.617959v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Assessment of high-efficacy agonism in synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists containing l-tert-leucinate 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.11.617959v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) represent a class of new psychoactive substances that pose great health risks attributed to their wide-ranging and severe adverse effects. Recent evidence has shown that SCRAs with key moieties can confer superagonism, yet this phenomenon is still not well understood. Here we report structure-activity relationships (SARs) of modular SCRAs contributing to superagonism by comparing eight compounds differing by their head moiety (l-valinate vs. l-tert-leucinate), core moiety (indole vs. indazole), and tail moiety (5-fluoropentyl vs. 4-fluorobenzyl) through different modes of bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) assays. We found that the l-tert-leucinate head moiety and indazole core moiety conferred superagonism across multiple Gi/o proteins and {beta}-arrestin-2. After generating the cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1R) mutant constructs, we found that transmembrane 2 (TM2) interactions to the head moiety of tested SCRAs at F170, F174, F177, and H178 are key to eliciting activity. Finally, we found that l-tert-leucinate SCRAs confer a high-efficacy response in ex vivo slice electrophysiology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lucaj, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pitha, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yano, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.11.617959</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Assessment of high-efficacy agonism in synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists containing l-tert-leucinate]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.17.618550v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
On the analysis of functional PET (fPET)-FDG: baseline mischaracterization can introduce artifactual metabolic (de)activations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.17.618550v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Functional Positron Emission Tomography (fPET) with (bolus plus) constant infusion of [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose FDG), known as fPET-FDG, is a recently introduced technique in human neuroimaging, enabling the detection of dynamic glucose metabolism changes within a single scan. However, the statistical analysis of fPET-FDG data remains challenging because its signal and noise characteristics differ from both classic bolus-administration FDG PET and from functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), which together compose the primary sources of inspiration for analytical methods used by fPET-FDG researchers. In this study, we present an investigate of how inaccuracies in modeling baseline FDG uptake can introduce artifactual patterns to detrended TAC residuals, potentially introducing spurious (de)activations to general linear model (GLM) analyses. By combining simulations and empirical data from both constant infusion and bolus-plus-constant infusion protocols, we evaluate the effects of various baseline modeling methods, including polynomial detrending, regression against the global mean time-activity curve, and two analytical methods based on tissue compartment model kinetics. Our findings indicate that improper baseline removal can introduce statistically significant artifactual effects, although these effects characterized in this study ([~]2-8%) are generally smaller than those reported by previous literature employing robust sensory stimulation ([~]10-30%). We discuss potential strategies to mitigate this issue, including informed baseline modeling, optimized tracer administration protocols, and careful experimental design. These insights aim to enhance the reliability of fPET-FDG in capturing true metabolic dynamics in neuroimaging research.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Coursey, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mandeville, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hartung, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garimella, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sari, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lanzenberger, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Price, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polimeni, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greve, D. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hahn, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.17.618550</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[On the analysis of functional PET (fPET)-FDG: baseline mischaracterization can introduce artifactual metabolic (de)activations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.18.619000v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Wnt specifically induces FZD5/8 endocytosis and degradation and the involvement of RSPO-ZNRF3/RNF43 and DVL 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.18.619000v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Frizzled (FZD) proteins are the principal receptors of the Wnt signaling pathway. However, whether Wnt ligands induce FZD endocytosis and degradation remains elusive. The transmembrane E3 ubiquitin ligases ZNRF3 and RNF43 were reported to promote the endocytosis and degradation of FZD receptors to inhibit Wnt signaling, and their function is antagonized by R-spondin (RSPO) proteins. However, the dependency of RSPO-ZNRF3/RNF43-mediated FZD endocytosis and degradation on Wnt stimulation, as well as the specificity of this degradation for different FZD, remains unclear. Here, we demonstrated that Wnt induces FZD5/8 endocytosis and degradation in a ZNRF3/RNF43-dependent manner. ZNRF3/RNF43 selectively targets FZD5/8 for degradation upon Wnt stimulation. RSPO1 enhances Wnt signaling by specifically stabilizing FZD5/8. Wnt promotes the interaction between FZD5 and RNF43. We further demonstrated that DVL proteins promote ligand-independent endocytosis of FZD but are dispensable for Wnt-induced FZD5/8 endocytosis and degradation. Our results reveal a novel negative regulatory mechanism of Wnt signaling at the receptor level and illuminate the mechanism by which RSPO-ZNRF3/RNF43 regulates Wnt signaling, which may provide new insights into regenerative medicine and cancer therapy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Luo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lv, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheng, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.18.619000</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Wnt specifically induces FZD5/8 endocytosis and degradation and the involvement of RSPO-ZNRF3/RNF43 and DVL]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.23.619950v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Endothelial cell stiffness and type drive the formation of biomechanically-induced transcellular pores 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.23.619950v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Formation of transcellular pores facilitates the transport of materials across endothelial barriers. In Schlemms canal (SC) endothelium, impaired pore formation is associated with glaucoma. However, our understanding of the cellular processes responsible for pore formation is limited by lack of in vitro assays. Here, we present a novel platform for studying transcellular pore formation in human endothelial cells. We induced pores in SC cells by seeding them atop micron-sized magnetic beads followed by application of a magnetic field to subject cells to a basal to apical force, mimicking in vivo biomechanical forces. The pore formation process was dynamic, with pores opening and closing. Glaucomatous cells exhibited impaired pore formation that correlated with their increased stiffness. We further discovered that application of forces from the apical to basal direction did not induce pores in SC cells but resulted in formation of pores in other types of endothelial cells. Our studies reveal the central role of cell mechanics in formation of transcellular pores in endothelial cells, and provide a new approach for investigating their associated underlying mechanism/s.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Siadat, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Millette, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Safa, B. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bahrani Fard, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Braakman, S. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tay, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bertrand, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Read, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schildmeyer, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perkumas, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stamer, W. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Overby, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ethier, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.23.619950</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Endothelial cell stiffness and type drive the formation of biomechanically-induced transcellular pores]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.25.620271v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dissociable Default Mode Network Connectivity Patterns Underlie Distinct Symptoms in Psychosis Risk 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.25.620271v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Clinical High Risk (CHR) stage of psychosis is characterized by subthreshold symptoms of schizophrenia including negative symptoms, dysphoric mood, and functional deterioration. Hyperconnectivity of the default-mode network (DMN) has been observed in early schizophrenia, but the extent to which hyperconnectivity is present in CHR, and the extent to which such hyperconnectivity may underlie transdiagnostic symptoms, is not clear. As part of the Shanghai At-Risk for Psychosis (SHARP) program, resting-state fMRI data were collected from 251 young adults (158 CHR and 93 controls, M = 18.72, SD = 4.68, 129 male). We examined functional connectivity of the DMN by performing a whole-brain seed-to-voxel analysis with the MPFC as the seed. Symptom severity across a number of dimensions, including negative symptoms, positive symptoms, and affective symptoms were assessed. Compared to controls, CHRs exhibited significantly greater functional connectivity (p < 0.001 uncorrected) between the MPFC and 1) other DMN nodes including the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and 2) auditory cortices (superior and middle temporal gyri, STG/MTG). Furthermore, these two patterns of hyperconnectivity were differentially associated with distinct symptom clusters. Within CHR, MPFC-PCC connectivity was significantly correlated with anxiety (r= 0.23, p=0.006), while MPFC-STG/MTG connectivity was significantly correlated with negative symptom severity (r=0.26, p=0.001). Secondary analyses using item-level symptom scores confirmed a similar dissociation. These results demonstrate that two dissociable patterns of DMN hyperconnectivity found in the CHR stage may underlie distinct dimensions of symptomatology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ajunwa, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Collin, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keshavan, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shenton, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stone, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niznikiewicz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.25.620271</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dissociable Default Mode Network Connectivity Patterns Underlie Distinct Symptoms in Psychosis Risk]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.25.620373v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Shared and unique lifetime stressor characteristics and brain networks predict adolescent anxiety and depression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.25.620373v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundExposure to major life stressors and aberrant brain functioning have been related to anxiety and depression, especially during adolescence. However, whether these associations differ based on the specific characteristics of the stressors experienced, and/or the functional networks engaged, remains unclear.

MethodsWe used baseline lifetime stressor exposure and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from a longitudinal sample of 150 adolescents enriched for anxiety and depressive disorders. We examined the cumulative lifetime stressor frequency and severity of five stressor characteristics: physical danger, interpersonal loss, humiliation, entrapment, and role change/disruption. Anxiety and depression symptoms were assessed at three time points: baseline, 6-month and 12-month follow-ups. Linear mixed-effect models tested if the lifetime frequency and severity of these stressor characteristics and functional connectivity within and between frontoparietal, default, and ventral attention networks at baseline predicted anxiety and depression symptoms at three time points.

ResultsLifetime frequency and severity of humiliation and entrapment predicted both anxiety and depression symptoms. Lifetime frequency and severity of entrapment exposures predicted anxiety and depression symptoms after accounting for baseline depression and anxiety symptoms, respectively. Resting-state functional connectivity between default, frontoparietal and ventral attention networks did not predict either anxiety or depression symptoms after correcting for multiple comparisons.

ConclusionsOur study highlights lifetime exposures to humiliation and entrapment stressors as central stressor characteristics predictive of prospective anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescence. Our results also suggest that resting-state functional connectivity within and between default, frontoparietal and ventral attention networks may be relatively weak predictors of prospective anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescence.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Qu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chopra, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cocuzza, C. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Labache, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bauer, C. C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morfini, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavich, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joormann, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holmes, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.25.620373</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Shared and unique lifetime stressor characteristics and brain networks predict adolescent anxiety and depression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.28.620338v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Borrelia burgdorferi loses essential genetic elements and cell proliferative potential during stationary phase in culture but not in the tick vector. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.28.620338v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Lyme disease agent Borrelia burgdorferi is a polyploid bacterium with a segmented genome in which both the chromosome and over 20 distinct plasmids are present in multiple copies per cell. This pathogen can survive at least nine months in its tick vector in an apparent dormant state between blood meals, without losing cell proliferative capability when re-exposed to nutrients. Cultivated B. burgdorferi cells grown to stationary phase or resuspended in nutrient-limited media are often used to study the effects of nutrient deprivation. However, a thorough assessment of the spirochetes ability to recover from nutrient depletion has been lacking. Our study shows that starved B. burgdorferi cultures rapidly lose cell proliferative. Loss of genetic elements essential for cell proliferation contributes to the observed proliferative defect in stationary phase. The gradual decline in copies of genetic elements is not perfectly synchronized between chromosomes and plasmids, generating cells that harbor one or more copies of the essential chromosome but lack all copies of one or more non-essential plasmids. This phenomenon likely contributes to the well-documented issue of plasmid loss during in vitro cultivation of B. burgdorferi. In contrast, B. burgdorferi cells from ticks starved for 14 months showed no evidence of reduced cell proliferative ability or plasmid loss. Beyond their practical implications for studying B. burgdorferi, these findings suggest that the midgut of the tick vector offers a unique environment that supports the maintenance of B. burgdorferis segmented genome and cell proliferative potential during periods of tick fasting.

ImportanceBorrelia burgdorferi causes Lyme disease, a prevalent tick-borne illness. B. burgdorferi must survive long periods (months to a year) of apparent dormancy in the midgut of the tick vector between blood meals. Resilience to starvation is a common trait among bacteria. However, this study reveals that in laboratory cultures, B. burgdorferi poorly endures starvation and rapidly loses viability. This decline is linked to a gradual loss of genetic elements required for cell proliferation. These results suggest that the persistence of B. burgdorferi in nature is likely shaped more by unique environmental conditions in the midgut of the tick vector than by a general innate ability of this bacterium to endure nutrient deprivation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takacs, C. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCausland, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buron, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thappeta, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wachter, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosa, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobs-Wagner, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.28.620338</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Borrelia burgdorferi loses essential genetic elements and cell proliferative potential during stationary phase in culture but not in the tick vector.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.29.620944v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Discovery and isolation of novel capsaicinoids and their TRPV1-related activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.29.620944v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chilis contain capsaicin and other structurally related molecules known as capsaicinoids. Capsaicins target protein, the transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1 (TRPV1), has been linked to many post-activation effects, including changes in metabolism and pain sensation. Capsaicinoids also bind to TRPV1, but current studies often disregard non-capsaicin interactions. To fill in these gaps, we screened 40 different chili varieties derived from four Capsicum species by means of untargeted metabolomics and a rat TRPV1 (rTRPV1) calcium influx activation assay. The resulting capsaicinoid profiles were specific to each variety but only partially corresponded with species delimitations. Based on rTRPV1 activation elicited by crude chili extracts, capsaicinoids act in an additive manner and a capsaicinoid profile can serve as a gauge of this activation. In addition, we isolated eighteen capsaicinoids, including five previously unreported ones, and confirmed their structure by NMR and MS/MS. We then tested rTRPV1 activation by 23 capsaicinoids and three related compounds. This testing revealed that even slight deviations from the structure of capsaicin reduce the ability to activate the target, with a mere single hydroxylation on the acyl tail reducing potency towards rTRPV1 by more than 100-fold. In addition, we tested how rTRPV1 activity changes in the presence of capsaicin together with non-activating capsaicin analogs and weakly activating capsaicinoids and found both classes of molecules to positively modulate the effects of capsaicin. This demonstrates that even such compounds have measurable pharmacological effects, making a case for the use and study of natural chili extracts.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=76 SRC="FIGDIR/small/620944v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1d56d02org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@e7a66dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@5f409forg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@18b88f7_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG Created in BioRender. Smith, J. (2025) https://BioRender.com/a61h668

HighlightsO_LI5 novel capsaicinoids (vanilloids) and 13 other capsaicinoids were isolated from chilis.
C_LIO_LIThe slightest deviation in the capsaicin structure results in decreased TRPV1 activity.
C_LIO_LIA single hydroxylation can reduce potency to TRPV1 100-fold.
C_LIO_LINon-pungent vanilloids modulate capsaicin-TRPV1 activity.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smith, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stillerov, V. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dracinsky, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaustad, H. L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lorenzi, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smrckova, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reinardt, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lienard, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bednarova, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sacha, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pluskal, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.29.620944</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Discovery and isolation of novel capsaicinoids and their TRPV1-related activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.30.619948v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
NuclampFISH enables cell sorting based on nuclear RNA expression for chromatin analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.30.619948v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcriptional bursts refer to periods when RNA polymerase interacts with a DNA locus, leading to active gene transcription. This bursting activity can vary across individual cells, and analyzing the differences in transcription sites can help identify key drivers of gene expression for a specific target. Scaffolding methods based on fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) have been widely used to amplify the fluorescent signal of mRNAs and sort cells based on mRNA expression levels. However, these methods are inefficient at targeting nuclear RNA, including transcription sites, due to the probes limited accessibility through cellular compartment membranes and crosslinked proteins. Additionally, the required formaldehyde fixation interferes with downstream analysis of chromatin and protein-binding interactions. To address these challenges, a platform that integrates amplified FISH with reversible crosslinkers and allows access to the nucleus is needed. In response, we developed nuclear clampFISH (nuclampFISH). This method amplifies the fluorescent signal of mRNAs using a reversible crosslinker, enabling the sorting of cells based on nuclear RNA expression and compatible with downstream biochemical analysis. This assay demonstrates that transcriptionally active cells have more accessible chromatin for a respective gene. Notably, the tools developed are highly accessible and do not require specialized computation or equipment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nian, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.30.619948</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[NuclampFISH enables cell sorting based on nuclear RNA expression for chromatin analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.31.621220v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Detecting Special Genes in Marine Symbionts: A Phylogeny-Deviation Approach Identifies Recombination-Enhancing Variants 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.31.621220v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Different microbes possess special traits that enable adaptation to their specific niches, often through specialized genes. Identifying such species-special genes provides insights into microbial physiology and offers new tools for bioengineering. However, beyond the search for orphan genes, there are few methods for detecting genes that are homologous to those in other species yet contain unusual functional regions. In investigating the extreme recombination frequency of the marine symbiont bacterium Ca. E. kahalalidifaciens, we developed a computational approach to identify vairants that substantially deviate from phylogenetic expectations. This unbiased strategy successfully identified multiple Holliday junctions-related genes in Ca. E. kahalalidifaciens as candidates responsible for its exceptional recombination capacity. Heterologous expression of these gene variants in Escherichia coli significantly enhanced recombination efficiency. These high-efficient variants offer insights into improving tools for genetic manipulations, and our gene-identification approach can be applied broadly for microbial genome mining.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhou, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xia, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.31.621220</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Detecting Special Genes in Marine Symbionts: A Phylogeny-Deviation Approach Identifies Recombination-Enhancing Variants]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.05.622136v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An SH3-binding allosteric modulator stabilizes the global conformation of the AML-associated Src-family kinase, Hck 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.05.622136v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While ATP-site inhibitors for protein-tyrosine kinases are often effective drugs, their clinical utility can be limited by off-target activity and acquired resistance mutations due to the conserved nature of the ATP-binding site. However, combining ATP-site and allosteric kinase inhibitors can overcome these shortcomings in a double-drugging framework. Here we explored the allosteric effects of two pyrimidine diamines, PDA1 and PDA2, on the conformational dynamics and activity of the Src-family tyrosine kinase Hck, a promising drug target for acute myeloid leukemia. Using 1H-15N HSQC NMR, we mapped the binding site for both analogs to the SH3 domain. Despite the shared binding site, PDA1 and PDA2 had opposing effects on near-full-length Hck dynamics by hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry, with PDA1 stabilizing and PDA2 disrupting the overall kinase conformation. Kinase activity assays were consistent with these observations, with PDA2 enhancing kinase activity while PDA1 was without effect. Molecular dynamics simulations predicted selective bridging of the kinase domain N-lobe and SH3 domain by PDA1, a mechanism of allosteric stabilization supported by site-directed mutagenesis of N-lobe contact sites. Cellular thermal shift assays confirmed SH3 domaindependent interaction of PDA1 with wild-type Hck in myeloid leukemia cells and with a kinase domain gatekeeper mutant (T338M). These results identify PDA1 as a starting point for Src-family kinase allosteric inhibitor development that may work in concert with ATP-site inhibitors to suppress the evolution of resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Selzer, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerlach, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez-Areizaga, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, S. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iyer, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camacho, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ishima, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smithgall, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.05.622136</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An SH3-binding allosteric modulator stabilizes the global conformation of the AML-associated Src-family kinase, Hck]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.06.622304v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The acoustic properties, syllable structure, and syllable sequences of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during neonatal opioid withdrawal in FVB/N mouse substrains 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.06.622304v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Concomitant with the opioid epidemic, there has been a rise in pregnant women diagnosed with opioid use disorder and cases of infants born with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS). NOWS refers to signs and symptoms following cessation of prenatal opioid exposure that comprise neurological, gastrointestinal, and autonomic system dysfunction. A critical indicator of NOWS severity is excessive, high-pitched crying. However, NOWS evaluation is, in large part, subjective, and additional cry features may not be easily recognized during clinical assessment. Thus, there is a need for more objective measures to determine NOWS severity. We used a third trimester-approximate opioid exposure paradigm to model NOWS traits in genetically similar inbred substrains of FVB/N mice (NJ, NCrl, NHsd, and NTac). Pups were injected twice daily from postnatal day 1 (P1) to P14 with morphine (10 mg/kg, s.c.) or saline (20 ml/g, s.c.). Because there were only very minor substrain differences in spontaneous withdrawal-induced ultrasonic vocalization (USV) profiles, we collapsed across substrains to evaluate the effects of morphine withdrawal on additional USV properties. We identified syllable sequences unique to morphine-withdrawn and saline-control FVB/N pups on P7 and P14. We also observed an effect of spontaneous morphine withdrawal on the acoustic properties of USVs and specific syllables on P7 and P14. Multiple withdrawal traits correlated with some acoustic properties of USVs and syllable type emission in morphine-withdrawn FVB/N pups on P7 and P14. These data provide an in-depth investigation of mouse USV syllable profiles and acoustic features during spontaneous neonatal opioid withdrawal in mice.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wingfield, K. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Misic, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miracle, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDermott, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abney, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richardson, K. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubman, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beierle, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wachman, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bryant, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.06.622304</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The acoustic properties, syllable structure, and syllable sequences of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during neonatal opioid withdrawal in FVB/N mouse substrains]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.06.622347v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Co-Therapy with S1P and Heparan Sulfate Derivatives to Restore Endothelial Glycocalyx and Combat Pro-Atherosclerotic Endothelial Dysfunction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.06.622347v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Endothelial cell (EC) glycocalyx (GCX) shedding due to disturbed blood flow and chemical factors leads to low-density lipoprotein infiltration and reduced nitric oxide synthesis, causing vascular dysfunction and atherosclerosis. This study evaluates a novel therapy combining sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) and heparin (heparan sulfate derivative). We hypothesized that heparin/S1P would repair mechanically damaged EC GCX in disturbed flow (DF) regions and restore anti-atherosclerotic mechanotransduction function, addressing cardiovascular disease. We used a parallel-plate flow chamber to simulate flow conditions in vitro and a partial carotid ligation mouse model to mimic DF in vivo. Heparin and albumin-bound S1P were administered to assess their reparative effects on the endothelial GCX. Immunocytochemistry, fluorescent staining, confocal microscopy, cellular alignment studies, and ultrasound were performed to evaluate EC function and endothelial-dependent vascular function. Barrier functionality was assessed via macrophage uptake. Heparin/S1P mechanism-of-action insights were gained through fluid dynamics simulations and staining of GCX synthesis enzyme as well as S1P receptor. Statistical analyses validated results. In vitro data showed that heparin/S1P therapy improves the function of DF-conditioned ECs by restoring EC GCX and promoting EC alignment and elevated vasodilator eNOS (endothelial-type nitric oxide synthase) expression. The in vivo studies confirmed GCX degradation, increased vessel inflammation and hyperpermeability, and vessel wall thickening in the partially ligated left carotid artery. Heparin/S1P treatment restored GCX in the left carotid artery, enhancing GCX thickness and coverage of the blood vessel wall. This work advances a new approach to regenerating the EC GCX and restoring its function in ECs under DF conditions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mitra, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pentland, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolev, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eden, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oakes, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ebong, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.06.622347</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Co-Therapy with S1P and Heparan Sulfate Derivatives to Restore Endothelial Glycocalyx and Combat Pro-Atherosclerotic Endothelial Dysfunction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.12.623192v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrating Machine Learning with Flow-Imaging Microscopy for Automated Monitoring of Algal Blooms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.12.623192v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Real-time monitoring of phytoplankton in freshwater systems is critical for early detection of harmful algal blooms so as to enable efficient response by water management agencies. This paper presents an image processing pipeline developed to adapt ARTiMiS, a low-cost automated flow-imaging device, for real-time algal monitoring specifically in freshwater and environmental systems. This pipeline addresses several challenges associated with autonomous imaging of aquatic samples such as flow-imaging artifacts (i.e., out-of-focus and background objects), as well as specific challenges associated with monitoring of open environmental systems (i.e., identification of novel objects). The pipeline leverages a Random Forest model to identify out- of-focus particles with an accuracy of 89% and a custom background particle detection algorithm to identify and remove particles that erroneously appear in consecutive images with >97{+/-}2.8% accuracy. Furthermore, a convolutional neural network (CNN), trained to classify distinct classes comprising both taxonomical and morphological categories, achieved 94% accuracy in a closed dataset. Nonetheless, the supervised closed-set classifiers struggled with the accurate classification of objects when challenged with debris and novel particles which are common in complex open environments; this limits real-time monitoring applications by requiring extensive manual oversight. To mitigate this, three methods incorporating classification with rejection were tested to improve model precision by excluding irrelevant or unknown classes. Combined, these advances present a fully integrated, end-to-end solution for real-time HAB monitoring in open environmental systems thus enhancing the scalability of automated detection in dynamic aquatic environments.

HighlightsO_LIRandom Forest model is more generalizable than Convolutional Neural Networks to remove out-of-focus particles.
C_LIO_LIA two-stage clustering algorithm is effective at removing background particles in flow imaging microscopy.
C_LIO_LIClosed-set CNN classifier performance deteriorates when challenged with unknown particles.
C_LIO_LIClassification with rejection improves both precision and accuracy for environmental samples.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khan, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gincley, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Busch, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolofari, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Norton, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varga, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKay, R. M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuentes-Cabrera, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slawecki, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.12.623192</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrating Machine Learning with Flow-Imaging Microscopy for Automated Monitoring of Algal Blooms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.17.624050v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Clair3-RNA: A deep learning-based small variant caller for long-read RNA sequencing data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.17.624050v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Variant calling using long-read RNA sequencing (lrRNA-seq) can be applied to diverse tasks, such as capturing full-length isoforms and gene expression profiling. It poses challenges, however, due to higher error rates than DNA data, the complexities of transcript diversity, RNA editing events, etc. In this paper, we propose Clair3-RNA, the first deep learning-based variant caller tailored for lrRNA-seq data. Clair3-RNA leverages the strengths of the Clair series pipelines and incorporates several techniques optimized for lrRNA-seq data, such as uneven coverage normalization, refinement of training materials, editing site discovery, and the incorporation of phasing haplotype to enhance variant-calling performance. Clair3-RNA is available for various platforms, including PacBio and ONT complementary DNA sequencing (cDNA), and ONT direct RNA sequencing (dRNA). Our results demonstrated that Clair3-RNA achieved a [~]91% SNP F1-score on the ONT platform using the latest ONT SQK-RNA004 kit (dRNA004) and a [~]92% SNP F1-score in PacBio Iso-Seq and MAS-Seq for variants supported by at least four reads. The performance reached a [~]95% and [~]96% F1-score for ONT and PacBio, respectively, with at least ten supporting reads and disregarding the zygosity. With read phased, the performance reached [~]97% for ONT and [~]98% for PacBio. Extensive evaluation of various GIAB samples demonstrated that Clair3-RNA consistently outperformed existing callers and is capable of distinguishing RNA high-quality editing sites from variants accurately. Clair3-RNA is open-source and available at (https://github.com/HKU-BAL/Clair3-RNA).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zheng, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Y.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xin, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, A. O. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kesharwani, R. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sedlazeck, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.17.624050</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Clair3-RNA: A deep learning-based small variant caller for long-read RNA sequencing data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.19.624253v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Molecular Polymorphism of tau aggregates in Pick's disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.19.624253v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tau protein plays a central role in many neuropathies. The trajectory by which tau spreads through neural networks is disease-specific but the events driving progression are unknown. This is due in part to the challenge of characterizing tau aggregates in situ. We address that challenge using in situ micro-x-ray diffraction ({micro}XRD) and micro-X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to examine tau lesions in the brain of a 79-year-old male with dementia. Neuropathological examination revealed classical forms of tau in the hippocampal formation: extensive Pick bodies in the granular layer; modest numbers of neurofibrillary tangles and dystrophic neurites in the CA4 and hilus. {micro}XRD indicated that Pick bodies are low in fibril content, whereas neurofibrillary lesions within adjacent tissue exhibit far greater density of fibrillar tau. XRF demonstrated elevated levels of zinc, calcium and phosphorous in all tau-containing lesions whereas sulfur deposition was greatest in lesions exhibiting high fibrillar content. Correlation of lesion morphology with anatomical localization, tau fibrillation and differential elemental accumulation suggests tau fibrils generate biochemically distinct microenvironments that influence lesion morphology, tau seed formation and spreading.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stewart, T. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hyman, B. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burghammer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cotte, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makowski, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.19.624253</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Molecular Polymorphism of tau aggregates in Pick's disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.19.624381v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Representation Learning of Human Disease Mechanisms for a Foundation Model in Rare and Common Diseases 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.19.624381v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The limited amount of data available renders it challenging to characterize which biological processes are relevant to a rare disease. Hence, there is a need to leverage the knowledge of disease pathogenesis and treatment from the wider disease landscape to understand rare disease mechanisms. Furthermore, it is well understood that rare disease discoveries can inform the our knowledge of common diseases. In this paper, we introduce Dis2Vec (Disease to Vector), a new representation learning method for characterizing diseases with a focus on learning the underlying biological mechanisms, which is a step toward developing a foundation model for disease-association learning. Dis2Vec is trained on human genetic evidence and observed symptoms, and then evaluated through cross-modal transfer-learning scenarios based on a proposed drug association learning benchmark with drug targets (positive controls) and Orphanet Rare Disease Ontology (negative controls). Finally, we argue that clustering diseases in the Dis2Vec space, which captures biological mechanisms instead of drug-repurposing information, could increase the efficiency of translational research in rare and common diseases, and ultimately improve treatment strategies for patients.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ravandi, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mowrey, W. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chatterjee, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ricchiuto, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haddadi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abdelmessih, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lambden, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ughetto, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrett, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diethe, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Del Angel, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eliassi-Rad, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.19.624381</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Representation Learning of Human Disease Mechanisms for a Foundation Model in Rare and Common Diseases]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.22.624851v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cumulative dose responses for adapting biological systems 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.22.624851v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
This paper introduces the notion of cumulative dose response (cDR). The cDR is the area under the plot of a response variable, an integral taken over a fixed time interval and seen as a function of an input parameter. This work was motivated by the accumulation of cytokines resulting from T cell stimulation, where a non-monotonic cDR has been observed experimentally. However, the notion is of general applicability. A surprising conclusion is that incoherent feedforward loops studied in the systems biology literature, though capable of non-monotonic dose responses, can be mathematically shown to always result in monotonic cDR.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gupta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.22.624851</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cumulative dose responses for adapting biological systems]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.26.625479v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A multi-level formalism to capture the characteristics of hybrid phenotypes in Epithelial-Mesenchymal Plasticity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.26.625479v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity (EMP) is a cell-fate switching program that enables cells to adopt a spectrum of phenotypes ranging from epithelial (E) to mesenchymal (M), including intermediate hybrid E/M states. Hybrid E/M phenotypes are conducive to cancer metastasis, as they are associated with metastatic initiation, cancer stemness, drug resistance, and collective migration. Boolean models of the gene regulatory networks (GRNs) underlying EMP have yielded valuable insights into the dynamics of E and M phenotypes. However, these models are limited in their ability to capture hybrid phenotypes effectively, as they restrict gene expression to binary states. In contrast, hybrid E/M cells often exhibit partial expression of epithelial and mesenchymal markers. To overcome this limitation, we modified a threshold-based Boolean formalism to incorporate intermediate gene expression levels. The resulting multilevel model reveals novel hybrid steady-states characterized by partial expression of both E and M genes, thereby expanding the phenotypic landscape beyond that represented by traditional Boolean approaches. Notably, these hybrid states exhibit lower frustration compared to their counterparts in classical Boolean models. Furthermore, by resolving dynamical degeneracy, we demonstrate that the hybrid states identified by the multilevel model are more stable. These findings suggest that introducing minimal additional complexity into Boolean models can uncover previously hidden qualitative features of phenotypic landscapes governed by GRNs.

Significance StatementHybrid epithelial-mesenchymal phenotypes drive metastasis through collective migration, stemness, and drug resistance. However, traditional Boolean models of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity (EMP) networks cannot capture the partial gene expression characteristic of these biologically crucial hybrid states. We developed a multilevel Boolean formalism that extends classical binary models to include intermediate expression levels. This approach successfully captures hybrid states with partial expression of both epithelial and mesenchymal genes, exhibiting lower frustration and greater stability than traditional Boolean hybrid phenotypes. While conventional Boolean hybrid states depend on modeling artifacts, multilevel hybrid states emerge independently of such uncertainties. Critically, plasticity experiments revealed that multilevel hybrid states show significantly higher transition probabilities to other hybrid states compared to traditional models, creating a stable "hybrid cloud" that maintains metastatic properties while allowing adaptive responses to environmental stress. This multilevel framework provides a biologically meaningful characterization of hybrid phenotypes essential for understanding metastasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hari, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tripathi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anand, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.26.625479</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A multi-level formalism to capture the characteristics of hybrid phenotypes in Epithelial-Mesenchymal Plasticity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.29.626059v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The emergence and loss of cyclic peptides in Nicotiana illuminate dynamics and mechanisms of plant metabolic evolution 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.29.626059v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Specialized metabolism plays a central role in how plants cope with both biotic and abiotic stresses in order to survive and reproduce within dynamic and challenging environments. One recently circumscribed class of plant-specific, ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides are the burpitides, which are characterized by the installation of distinct sidechain macrocycles by enzymes known as burpitide cyclases. While they are found across many plant families and exhibit diverse bioactivities, little is known about their evolution or how new variants arise. Here we present the discovery of a new burpitide cyclase, resurrected from a defunct pseudogene from the model organism Nicotiana attenuata, the coyote tobacco. By repairing the pseudogene{Psi} NatBURP2 and expressing it heterologously in Nicotiana benthamiana, we successfully reconstituted its original enzymatic activity. As an autocatalytic peptide cyclase, it installs a unique C-C bond between the tyrosine side chain and a specific backbone a-carbon of a heptapeptide core motif, resulting in the burpitide dubbed "nanamin." Despite its pseudogenization in N. attenuata, we found that the closely related species, N. clevelandii, retains the wild-type gene and produces nanamins. Phylogenetic analyses and targeted mutagenesis experiments reveal that this chemotype must have evolved from the duplication and neofunctionalization of a more promiscuous ancestral gene. This work highlights how novel peptide chemotypes may rapidly emerge and disappear in plants, while expanding the molecular toolkit for engineering novel peptides with applications in agriculture and drug discovery.

SignificanceWhile RiPPs represent a major source of antibiotics and bioactive compounds, much research has focused on microbial sources even as plant RiPPs go understudied. Here, we resurrect an extinct peptide cyclase from the coyote tobacco through analysis of its functional relatives in other species. This newly identified cyclase installs a novel carbon-carbon macrocycle into heptapeptides, expanding the diversity of plant-derived cyclic peptides. By interconverting two distinct cyclases through targeted mutations, we illuminate how these enzymes evolve new functions. This work highlights the evolutionary dynamics of plant peptide natural products and their potential applications in drug discovery and biotech crop development, while illustrating how genomic archaeology can reveal lost biosynthetic capabilities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Suh, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reinhardt, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weng, J.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.29.626059</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The emergence and loss of cyclic peptides in Nicotiana illuminate dynamics and mechanisms of plant metabolic evolution]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.03.626395v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Anapc5 and Anapc7 as genetic modifiers of KIF18A function in fertility and mitotic progression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.03.626395v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The kinesin family member 18A (KIF18A) is an essential regulator of microtubule dynamics and chromosome alignment during mitosis. Functional dependency on KIF18A varies by cell type and genetic context but the heritable factors that influence this dependency remain unknown. To address this, we took advantage of the variable penetrance observed in different mouse strain backgrounds to screen for loci that modulate germ cell depletion in the absence of KIF18A. We found a significant association at a Chr5 locus where anaphase promoting complex subunits 5 (Anapc5) and 7 (Anapc7) were the top candidate genes. We found that both genes were differentially expressed in a sensitive strain background when compared to resistant strain background at key timepoints in gonadal development. We also identified a novel retroviral insertion in Anapc7 that may in part explain the observed expression differences. In cell line models, we found that depletion of KIF18A induced mitotic arrest, which was partially rescued by co-depletion of ANAPC7 (APC7) and exacerbated by co-depletion of ANAPC5 (APC5). These findings suggest that differential expression and activity of Anapc5 and Anapc7 may influence sensitivity to KIF18A depletion in germ cells and CIN cells, with potential implications for optimizing antineoplastic therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nesbit, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Czechanski, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byers, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raghupathy, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferraj, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stumpff, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reinholdt, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.03.626395</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Anapc5 and Anapc7 as genetic modifiers of KIF18A function in fertility and mitotic progression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.06.627160v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rates of evolution differ between cell types identified by single-cell RNAseq in threespine stickleback 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.06.627160v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Rates of evolutionary change vary by gene. While some broad gene categories are highly conserved with little divergence over time, others undergo continuous selection pressure and are highly divergent. Here, we combine single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) with evolutionary genomics to understand whether certain cell types exhibit faster evolutionary divergence (using their characteristic genes), than other types of cells. Merging scRNAseq with population genomic data, we show that cell types differ in the rate at which their characteristic genes evolve, as measured by allele frequency divergence among many populations (FST) and between species (dN/dS ratios). Neutrophils, B cells, and fibroblasts exhibit elevated FST at characteristic genes, while eosinophils in the intestine and thrombocytes in the head kidney exhibit lower FST than the average for 1000 random genes. Gene network centrality also differed between immune- and non-immune-associated genes, and closeness centrality was positively related to gene FST. These results highlight the value of merging single cell RNA sequencing technology with evolutionary population genomic data, and reveal that genes which define immune cell types exhibit especially rapid evolution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rodgers, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Subramanian, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuess, L. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scarpino, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roth-Monzon, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeffries, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seignon, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milligan-McClellan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carrier, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steinel, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolnick, D. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.06.627160</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rates of evolution differ between cell types identified by single-cell RNAseq in threespine stickleback]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.10.627505v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Role of BAZ2-dependent Chromatin Remodeling in Suppressing G4 DNA Structures and Associated Genomic Instability 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.10.627505v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
DNA G-quadruplexes (G4s) are secondary structures with significant roles in regulating genome function and stability. Dysregulation of the dynamic formation of G4s is linked to genomic instability and disease, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we conducted a screen of chromatin-modifying enzymes and identified nine potential inhibitors of G4 formation, including seven that were not previously characterized. Among these, we highlight the role of BAZ2 chromatin remodelers as key suppressors of G4 DNA and G4-related genome instability. Depletion of BAZ2 subunits led to increased G4 formation, especially at transcriptional regulatory elements. BAZ2B was found to associate with G4 loci, suggesting that it plays a direct role in suppressing G4s. While BAZ2-deficient cells exhibited modest genomic instability, treatment with the G4-stabilizing ligand BRACO19 exacerbated double-strand breaks (DSBs), highlighting its utility as a tool to study G4-dependent genome instability. DSB profiling using INDUCE-seq uncovered distinct breakage patterns around G4s, further underscoring the impact of G4s on genome integrity. Notably, we found that within G4s, G repeats were more susceptible to DSBs than loops. These results establish BAZ2 chromatin remodeling complexes as direct regulators of G4 dynamics and provide new insights into G4-dependent genome instability.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vandeuren, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Dare, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, R. H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Eijk, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Julio, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Macleod, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chee, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salpukas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kriz, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lantz, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gordon, S. J. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elsässer, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Day, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.10.627505</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Role of BAZ2-dependent Chromatin Remodeling in Suppressing G4 DNA Structures and Associated Genomic Instability]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202481v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modular environmental pleiotropy of genes involved in local adaptation to climate despite physical linkage 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202481v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundPhysical linkage among genes shaped by different sources of selection is a fundamental aspect of genetic architecture. Theory predicts that evolution in complex environments selects for modular genetic architectures and high recombination rates among loci shaped by different sources of selection. However, limited data exist to test these predictions because the field lacks consensus for how to control for intercorrelated environmental variables. Here, we introduce a co-association network analysis, which clusters loci based on differing environmental associations, and use it to study the genetic architecture of local adaptation to climate in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta).nnResultsWe identified many modules of genes associated with distinct environments (aridity, freezing, geography), and discovered low recombination rates among some candidate genes in different modules. We observed limited evidence for environmental pleiotropic effects on distinct aspects of climate. We also found limited correspondence between the modularity of co-association networks and gene regulatory networks. We compared co-association networks to associations with principal components, and found the latter can lead to misinterpretation. Finally, we used simulations to illustrate the benefits and caveats of co-association networks.nnConclusionsCo-association networks provided a useful framework for studying modularity. Our results supported the prediction that evolution to complex environments selects for modular genetic architectures, but some of our results went against the prediction that selection would increase recombination among loci experiencing different sources of selection. These results give new insight into evolutionary debates about the extent of modularity and pleiotropy in the evolution of genetic architectures.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hodgins, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeaman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Degner, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aitken, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-10-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/202481</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modular environmental pleiotropy of genes involved in local adaptation to climate despite physical linkage]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-10-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/221150v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Selective attention modulates surface filling-in 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/221150v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The visual system is required to compute objects from partial image structure so that figures can be segmented from their backgrounds. Although early clinical, behavioral, and modeling data suggested that such computations are performed pre-attentively, recent neurophysiological evidence suggests that surface filling-in is influenced by attention. In the present study we developed a variant of the classical Kanizsa illusory triangle to investigate whether voluntary attention modulates perceptual filling-in. Our figure consists of "pacmen" positioned at the tips of an illusory 6-point star and alternating in polarity such that two illusory triangles are implied to compete with one another within the figure. On each trial, observers were cued to attend to only one triangle, and then compared its lightness with a matching texture-defined triangle. We found that perceived lightness of the illusory shape depended on the polarity of pacmen framing the attended triangle, although the magnitude of this effect was weaker than when all inducers were of the same polarity. Our findings thus reveal that voluntary attention can influence lightness filling-in, and provide important data linking neurophysiological effects to phenomenology.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Harrison, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayeni, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-11-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/221150</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Selective attention modulates surface filling-in]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-11-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/226456v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Controllability in an islet specific regulatory network identifies the transcriptional factor NFATC4, which regulates Type 2 Diabetes associated genes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/226456v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Probing the dynamic control features of biological networks represents a new frontier in capturing the dysregulated pathways in complex diseases. Here, using patient samples obtained from a pancreatic islet transplantation program, we constructed a tissue-specific gene regulatory network and used the control centrality (Cc) concept to identify the high control centrality (HiCc) pathways, which might serve as key pathobiological pathways for Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). We found that HiCc pathway genes were significantly enriched with modest GWAS p-values in the DIAbetes Genetics Replication And Meta-analysis (DIAGRAM) study. We identified variants regulating gene expression (expression quantitative loci, eQTL) of HiCc pathway genes in islet samples. These eQTL genes showed higher levels of differential expression compared to non-eQTL genes in low, medium and high glucose concentrations in rat islets. Among genes with highly significant eQTL evidence, NFATC4 belonged to four HiCc pathways. We asked if the expressions of T2D-associated candidate genes from GWAS and literature are regulated by Nfatc4 in rat islets. Extensive in vitro silencing of Nfatc4 in rat islet cells displayed reduced expression of 16, and increased expression of 4 putative downstream T2D genes. Overall, our approach uncovers the mechanistic connection of NFATC4 with downstream targets including a previously unknown one, TCF7L2, and establishes the HiCc pathways relationship to T2D.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sharma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Decano, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menche, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prasad, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fadista, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santolini, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Padi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, S. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vidal, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silverman, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aikawa, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Groop, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loscalzo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-11-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/226456</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Controllability in an islet specific regulatory network identifies the transcriptional factor NFATC4, which regulates Type 2 Diabetes associated genes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-11-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/229211v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Multi-Species Functional Embedding Integrating Sequence and Network Structure 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/229211v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A key challenge to transferring knowledge between species is that different species have fundamentally different genetic architectures. Initial computational approaches to transfer knowledge across species have relied on measures of heredity such as genetic homology, but these approaches suffer from limitations. First, only a small subset of genes have homologs, limiting the amount of knowledge that can be transferred, and second, genes change or repurpose functions, complicating the transfer of knowledge. Many approaches address this problem by expanding the notion of homology by leveraging high-throughput genomic and proteomic measurements, such as through network alignment.nnIn this work, we take a new approach to transferring knowledge across species by expanding the notion of homology through explicit measures of functional similarity between proteins in different species. Specifically, our kernel-based method, HO_SCPLOWANDLC_SCPLOW (Homology Assessment across Networks using Diffusion and Landmarks), integrates sequence and network structure to create a functional embedding in which proteins from different species are embedded in the same vector space. We show that inner products in this space capture functional similarity across species, and the vectors themselves are useful for a variety of cross species tasks. We perform the first whole-genome method for predicting phenologs, generating many that were previously identified, but also predicting new phenologs supported from the biological literature. We also demonstrate the HO_SCPLOWANDLC_SCPLOW-embedding captures pairwise gene function, in that gene pairs with synthetic lethal interactions are co-located in HO_SCPLOWANDLC_SCPLOW-space both within and across species. Software for the HO_SCPLOWANDLC_SCPLOW algorithm is available at http://github.com/lrgr/HANDL.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Leiserson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cannistra, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fried, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lim, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schaffner, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crovella, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hescott, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-12-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/229211</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Multi-Species Functional Embedding Integrating Sequence and Network Structure]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-12-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/232033v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mitochondrial heteroplasmy is responsible for Atovaquone drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/232033v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Malaria is the most significant parasitic disease affecting humans, with 212 million cases and 429,000 deaths in 2 0151, and resistance to existing drugs endangers the global malaria elimination campaign. Atovaquone (ATO) is a safe and potent antimalarial drug that acts on cytochrome b (cyt. b) of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (mtETC) in Plasmodium falciparum, yet treatment failures result in resistance-conferring SNPs in cyt. b. Herein we report that rather than the expected de novo selection of resistance, previously unknown mitochondrial diversity is the genetic mechanism responsible for resistance to ATO, and potentially other cyt. b targeted drugs. We found that P. falciparum harbors cryptic cyt. b. Y268S alleles in the multicopy ([~]22 copies) mitochondrial genome prior to drug treatment, a phenomenon known as mitochondrial heteroplasmy. Parasites with cryptic Y268S alleles readily evolve into highly resistant parasites with >95% Y268S copies under in vitro ATO selection. Further we uncovered high mitochondrial diversity in a global collection of 1279 genomes in which heteroplasmic polymorphisms were >3-fold more prevalent than homoplasmic SNPs. Moreover, significantly higher mitochondrial genome copy number was found in Asia (e.g., Cambodia) versus Africa (e.g., Ghana). Similarly, ATO drug selections in vitro induced >3-fold mitochondrial copy number increases in ATO resistant lines. Hidden mitochondrial diversity is a previously unknown mechanism of antimalarial drug resistance and characterization of mitochondrial heteroplasmy will be of paramount importance in combatting resistance to antimalarials targeting the electron transport chain.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Siegel, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rivero, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adapa, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manetsch, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, R. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kyle, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-12-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/232033</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mitochondrial heteroplasmy is responsible for Atovaquone drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-12-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/232488v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Three-Dimensional Binocular Eye-Hand Coordination in Normal Vision and with Simulated Visual Impairment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/232488v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sensorimotor coupling in healthy humans is demonstrated by the higher accuracy of visually tracking intrinsically-rather than extrinsically-generated hand movements in the fronto-parallel plane. It is unknown whether this coupling also facilitates vergence eye movements for tracking objects in depth, or can overcome symmetric or asymmetric binocular visual impairments. Human observers were therefore asked to track with their gaze a target moving horizontally or in depth. The movement of the target was either directly controlled by the observer's hand or followed hand movements executed by the observer in a previous trial. Visual impairments were simulated by blurring stimuli independently in each eye. Accuracy was higher for self-generated movements in all conditions, demonstrating that motor signals are employed by the oculomotor system to improve the accuracy of vergence as well as horizontal eye movements. Asymmetric monocular blur affected horizontal tracking less than symmetric binocular blur, but impaired tracking in depth as much as binocular blur. There was a critical blur level up to which pursuit and vergence eye movements maintained tracking accuracy independent of blur level. Hand-eye coordination may therefore help compensate for functional deficits associated with eye disease and may be employed to augment visual impairment rehabilitation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maiello, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kwon, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-12-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/232488</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Three-Dimensional Binocular Eye-Hand Coordination in Normal Vision and with Simulated Visual Impairment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-12-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/235150v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A mathematical approach to differentiate spontaneous and induced evolution to drug resistance during cancer treatment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/235150v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Drug resistance is a major impediment to the success of cancer treatment. Resistance is typically thought to arise through random genetic mutations, after which mutated cells expand via Darwinian selection. However, recent experimental evidence suggests that the progression to drug resistance need not occur randomly, but instead may be induced by the treatment itself, through either genetic changes or epigenetic alterations. This relatively novel notion of resistance complicates the already challenging task of designing effective treatment protocols. To better understand resistance, we have developed a mathematical modeling framework that incorporates both spontaneous and drug-induced resistance. Our model demonstrates that the ability of a drug to induce resistance can result in qualitatively different responses to the same drug dose and delivery schedule. We have also proven that the induction parameter in our model is theoretically identifiable, and proposed an in vitro protocol which could be used to determine a treatments propensity to induce resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Greene, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gevertz, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-12-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/235150</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A mathematical approach to differentiate spontaneous and induced evolution to drug resistance during cancer treatment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-12-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/238873v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Macrophage resilience and control of intracellular bacteria requires sst1-dependent integration of c-Myc, stress response and type I IFN pathways 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/238873v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Host susceptibility to tuberculosis and several other intracellular bacteria is controlled by a mouse genetic locus, sst1. Necrotic inflammatory lesions, similar to human TB granulomas, are a hallmark of the sst1 susceptible phenotype. Our previous work established that increased disease severity in sst1 susceptible mice reflects dysfunctional macrophage effector or tolerance mechanisms, but the molecular mechanisms have been unclear.nnWe demonstrate that sst1-deficient macrophages develop aberrant, biphasic responses to TNF, characterized by super-induction of stress and type I interferon pathways after prolonged TNF stimulation. This late stage response was initiated by oxidative stress and Myc. It was driven via a JNK - IFN{beta} - PKR feed-forward circuit locking the susceptible macrophages in a state of escalating stress. Consequently, prolonged TNF stimulation of the susceptible macrophages reduced their resilience to subsequent infection with intracellular bacteria.nnThe data support a generalizable paradigm in host - pathogen interactions, where susceptibility emerges gradually within inflammatory tissue due to imbalanced macrophage responses to growth, differentiation, activation and stress stimuli prior to encountering pathogens. This explains how successful pathogens may locally bypass mechanisms of resistance in otherwise immunocompetent hosts and suggests novel therapeutic strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bhattacharya, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chatterjee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berland, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pichugin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ivanov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connor, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, B.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kobzik, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kramnik, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-12-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/238873</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Macrophage resilience and control of intracellular bacteria requires sst1-dependent integration of c-Myc, stress response and type I IFN pathways]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-12-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/241349v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Beyond the ribosome: proteome-wide secretability studies using SECRiFY 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/241349v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While transcriptome- and proteome-wide technologies to assess processes in protein biogenesis are now widely available, we still lack global approaches to assay post-ribosomal biogenesis events, in particular those occurring in the eukaryotic secretory system. We here developed a method, SECRiFY, to simultaneously assess the secretability of >105 protein fragments by two yeast species, S. cerevisiae and P. pastoris, using custom fragment libraries, surface display and a sequencing-based readout. Screening human proteome fragments with a median size of 50 - 100 amino acids, we generated datasets that enable datamining into protein features underlying secretability, revealing a striking role for intrinsic disorder and chain flexibility. SECRiFY is the first methodology that generates sufficient amounts of annotated data for advanced machine learning methods to deduce secretability predictors. The finding that secretability is indeed a learnable feature of protein sequences is of significant impact in the broad area of recombinant protein expression and de novo protein design.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Boone, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramasamy, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maddelein, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martens, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vandermarliere, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vranken, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Callewaert, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/241349</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Beyond the ribosome: proteome-wide secretability studies using SECRiFY]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/244517v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
NanoAmpli-Seq: A workflow for amplicon sequencing from mixed microbial communities on the nanopore sequencing platform 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/244517v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundAmplicon sequencing on Illumina sequencing platforms leverages their deep sequencing and multiplexing capacity, but is limited in genetic resolution due to short read lengths. While Oxford Nanopore or Pacific Biosciences platforms overcome this limitation, their application has been limited due to higher error rates or smaller data output.nnResultsIn this study, we introduce an amplicon sequencing workflow, i.e., NanoAmpli-Seq, that builds on Intramolecular-ligated Nanopore Consensus Sequencing (INC-Seq) approach and demonstrate its application for full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing. NanoAmpli-Seq includes vital improvements to the aforementioned protocol that reduces sample-processing time while significantly improving sequence accuracy. The developed protocol includes chopSeq software for fragmentation and read orientation correction of INC-Seq consensus reads while nanoClust algorithm was designed for read partitioning-based de novo clustering and within cluster consensus calling to obtain full-length 16S rRNA gene sequences.nnConclusionsNanoAmpli-Seq accurately estimates the diversity of tested mock communities with average sequence accuracy of 99.5% for 2D and 1D2 sequencing on the nanopore sequencing platform. Nearly all residual errors in NanoAmpli-Seq sequences originate from deletions in homopolymer regions, indicating that homopolymer aware basecalling or error correction may allow for sequencing accuracy comparable to short-read sequencing platforms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Calus, S. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ijaz, U. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/244517</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[NanoAmpli-Seq: A workflow for amplicon sequencing from mixed microbial communities on the nanopore sequencing platform]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/247031v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reducing False Positives in CRISPR/Cas9 Screens from Copy Number Variations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/247031v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
CRISPR/Cas9 knockout screens have been widely used to interrogate gene functions across a wide range of cell systems. However, the screening outcome is biased in amplified genomic regions, due to the ability of the Cas9 nuclease to induce multiple double-stranded breaks and strong DNA damage responses at these regions. We developed algorithms to correct biases associated with copy number variations (CNV), even when the CNV profiles are unknown. We demonstrated that our methods effectively reduced false positives in amplified regions while preserving signals of true positives. In addition, we developed a sliding window approach to estimate regions of high copy numbers for cases in which CNV information is not available. These copy number estimations can subsequently be used to effectively correct CNV-related biases in CRISPR screening experiments. Our approach is integrated into the existing MAGeCK/MAGeCK-VISPR analysis pipelines and provides a convenient framework to improve the precision of CRISPR screening results.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, S. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/247031</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reducing False Positives in CRISPR/Cas9 Screens from Copy Number Variations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/250308v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Passive Audio Vocal Capture and Measurement in the Evaluation of Selective Mutism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/250308v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Selective Mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder often diagnosed in early childhood and characterized by persistent failure to speak in certain social situations but not others. Diagnosing SM and monitoring treatment response can be quite complex, due in part to changing definitions of and scarcity of research about the disorder. Subjective self-reports and parent/teacher interviews can complicate SM diagnosis and therapy, given that similar speech problems of etiologically heterogeneous origin can be attributed to SM. The present perspective discusses the potential for passive audio capture to help overcome psychiatrys current lack of objective and quantifiable assessments in the context of SM. We present evidence from two pilot studies indicating the feasibility of using a digital wearable device to quantify child vocalization features affected by SM. We also highlight limitations in the design and implementation of this preliminary work that can help guide future efforts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stroud, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jozanovic, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clucas, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Son, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koo, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwarz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klein, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Busman, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milham, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/250308</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Passive Audio Vocal Capture and Measurement in the Evaluation of Selective Mutism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/254193v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Preserved functional connectivity in the default mode and salience networks is associated with youthful memory in superaging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/254193v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
'Superagers' are older adults who, despite their advanced age, maintain youthful memory. Previous morphometry studies revealed multiple default mode network (DMN) and salience network (SN) regions whose cortical thickness is preserved in superagers and correlates with memory performance. In this study, we examined the intrinsic functional connectivity within DMN and SN in 41 young (24.5 {+/-} 3.6 years old) and 40 elderly adults (66.9 {+/-} 5.5 years old). As in prior studies, superaging was defined as youthful performance on a memory recall task, the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT). Participants underwent a resting state fMRI scan and performed a separate visual-verbal recognition memory task. As predicted, within both DMN and SN, superagers had stronger connectivity compared to typical older adults and similar connectivity compared to young adults. Superagers also performed similarly to young adults and better than typical older adults on the recognition task, demonstrating youthful episodic memory that generalized across memory tasks. Stronger connectivity within each network independently predicted better performance on both the CVLT and recognition task in older adults. Variation in intrinsic connectivity explained unique variance in memory performance, above and beyond preserved neuroanatomy. A post-hoc analysis revealed that DMN and SN nodes were more strongly inversely correlated in superagers than in typical older adults but were similarly correlated in superagers and young adults. Stronger between-network inverse correlations also predicted better memory performance in the entire sample of older adults. These results extend our understanding of the neural basis of superaging as a model of successful aging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andreano, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dickerson, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Touroutoglou, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrett, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/254193</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Preserved functional connectivity in the default mode and salience networks is associated with youthful memory in superaging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/256768v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Limb bone scaling in hopping diprotodonts and quadrupedal artiodactyls 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/256768v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bone adaptation is modulated by the timing, direction, rate, and magnitude of mechanical loads. To investigate whether frequent slow, or infrequent fast, gaits could dominate bone adaptation to load, we compared scaling of the limb bones from two mammalian herbivore clades that use radically different high-speed gaits, bipedal hopping (suborder Macropodiformes; kangaroos and kin) and quadrupedal galloping (order Artiodactyla; goats, deer and kin). Forelimb and hindlimb bones were collected from 20 artiodactyl and 15 macropod species (body mass M 1.05 - 1536 kg) and scanned in computed tomography or X- ray microtomography. Second moment of area (Imax) and bone length (l) were measured. Scaling relations (y = axb) were calculated for l vs M for each bone and for Imax vs M and Imax vs l for every 5% of length. Imax vs M scaling relationships were broadly similar between clades despite the macropod forelimb being nearly unloaded, and the hindlimb highly loaded, during bipedal hopping. Imax vs l and l vs M scaling were related to locomotor and behavioural specialisations. Low-intensity loads may be sufficient to maintain bone mass across a wide range of species. Occasional high-intensity gaits might not break through the load sensitivity saturation engendered by frequent low-intensity gaits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Doube, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Felder, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chua, M. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lodhia, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kłosowski, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hutchinson, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shefelbine, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-01-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/256768</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Limb bone scaling in hopping diprotodonts and quadrupedal artiodactyls]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-01-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/258517v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neuregulin-1 exerts molecular control over axolotl lung regeneration through ErbB family receptors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/258517v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The induction of new lung tissue after disease or trauma has the potential to save lives and transform patient outcomes. Ambystoma mexicanum, the axolotl salamander, is a classic model organism used to study vertebrate regeneration, primarily after limb amputation. While it is hypothesized that axolotls regenerate all of their tissues, exploration of lung regeneration has not been performed until now. Proliferation after lung injury was observed to be a global response, suggesting that regeneration utilizes a compensatory mechanism, in contrast to limb regenerations epimorphic response. ErbB signaling is crucial for the proliferative response during lung regeneration, likely through the ErbB2:ErbB4 receptor heterodimer. ErbB4 mRNA was found to be highly upregulated at both one and three weeks post amputation. Neuregulin-1p (NRG1) can induce proliferation in the lung and likely exerts molecular control over lung regeneration. Inhibition of ErbB2 was sufficient to both block regeneration and the proliferative response observed after NRG1 treatment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jensen, T. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giunta, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schulz, N. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kyeremateng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adesina, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-02-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/258517</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neuregulin-1 exerts molecular control over axolotl lung regeneration through ErbB family receptors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-02-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/261776v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
IFIT3 and IFIT2/3 promote IFIT1-mediated translation inhibition by enhancing binding to non-self RNA. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/261776v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Interferon-induced proteins with tetratricopeptide repeats (IFITs) are highly expressed during the cell-intrinsic immune response to viral infection. IFIT1 inhibits translation by binding directly to the 5' end of foreign RNAs, particularly those with non-self cap structures, precluding the recruitment of the cap-binding eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4F and subsequent 40S recruitment. Interaction of different IFIT family members is well described, but little is known of the molecular basis of IFIT association or its impact on function. Here, we reconstituted different complexes of IFIT1, IFIT2 and IFIT3 in vitro, which enabled us to reveal critical aspects of IFIT complex assembly. IFIT1 interacts rapidly and strongly with IFIT3 forming a stable heterotetramer. IFIT2 and IFIT3 homodimers dissociate to form a more stable heterodimer that associates with IFIT1, forming an IFIT1:IFIT2:IFIT3 trimer. Site-directed mutagenesis revealed a C-terminal  YxxxL motif in IFIT1 that mediates its association with IFIT3. Using various reporter mRNAs, we demonstrate for the first time that IFIT3 stabilises IFIT1 binding to cap0-mRNA and enhances its translation inhibition activity. Disrupting the binding interface between IFIT1 and IFIT3 abrogated this enhancement. This work reveals molecular aspects of IFIT assembly and provides an important  missing link between IFIT interaction and function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fleith, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mears, H. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emmott, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graham, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mansur, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sweeney, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-02-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/261776</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[IFIT3 and IFIT2/3 promote IFIT1-mediated translation inhibition by enhancing binding to non-self RNA.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-02-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/265553v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Open Community Challenge Reveals Molecular Network Modules with Key Roles in Diseases 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/265553v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Identification of modules in molecular networks is at the core of many current analysis methods in biomedical research. However, how well different approaches identify disease-relevant modules in different types of gene and protein networks remains poorly understood. We launched the "Disease Module Identification DREAM Challenge", an open competition to comprehensively assess module identification methods across diverse protein-protein interaction, signaling, gene co-expression, homology, and cancer-gene networks. Predicted network modules were tested for association with complex traits and diseases using a unique collection of 180 genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Our critical assessment of 75 contributed module identification methods reveals novel top-performing algorithms, which recover complementary trait-associated modules. We find that most of these modules correspond to core disease-relevant pathways, which often comprise therapeutic targets and correctly prioritize candidate disease genes. This community challenge establishes benchmarks, tools and guidelines for molecular network analysis to study human disease biology (https://synapse.org/modulechallenge).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Choobdar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahsen, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crawford, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tomasoni, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lamparter, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hescott, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mercer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Natoli, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Narayan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>The DREAM Module Identification Challenge Consortium,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Subramanian, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stolovitzky, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kutalik, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lage, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slonim, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saez-Rodriguez, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cowen, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bergmann, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marbach, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-02-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/265553</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Open Community Challenge Reveals Molecular Network Modules with Key Roles in Diseases]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-02-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/268714v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeted Drug Delivery by Radiation-Induced Tumor Vascular Modulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/268714v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Effective drug delivery is severely restricted by the presence of complex pathophysiological barriers in solid tumors. In human pancreatic adenocarcinoma, mature and hypopermeable tumor blood vessels limit the permeation and penetration of chemo or nanotherapeutics to cancer cells and substantially reduce the treatment efficacy. New, clinically-viable strategies are therefore sought to breach the neoplastic barriers that prevent optimal tumor-specific drug delivery. Here, we present an original idea to boost targeted drug delivery by selectively knocking down the tumor vascular barrier in a poorly permeable human pancreatic cancer model. For the first time, we demonstrate that clinical irradiation (10 Gy, 6 MV) can induce tumor vascular modulation when combined with tumor endothelial-targeting gold nanoparticles. Active disruption of tumor blood vessels by nanoparticle-combined radiotherapy led to increased vessel permeability and improved tumor uptake of two prototypical model nanodrugs: i) a short-circulating nanocarrier with MR-sensitive gadolinium (Gad-NC; 8 kDa; t1/2=1.5 h) and ii) a long-circulating nanocarrier with fluorescence-sensitive NIR dye (FL-NC; 30 kDa; t1/2=25 h). Functional changes in the altered tumor vessel dynamics, measured by relative changes in permeability (Ktrans), flux rate (Kep) and extracellular interstitial volume (Ve) were consistent with the concomitant increase in nanodrug delivery. This combination of radiation-induced antivascular and nanodrug-mediated anti-tumor treatment offers high therapeutic benefit for tumors with pathophysiology that restricts efficient drug delivery.nnnnO_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=125 SRC="FIGDIR/small/268714_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">nView larger version (84K):norg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a6df8borg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@19e3179org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@c223aaorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b3a08d_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG GRAPHICAL ABSTRACTnnC_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kunjachan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kotb, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pola, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pechar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gremse, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taleeli, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trichard, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Motto-Ros, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sancey, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Detappe, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Protti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shanmugam, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ireland, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Etrych, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sridhar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tillement, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makrigiorgos, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berbeco, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-02-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/268714</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeted Drug Delivery by Radiation-Induced Tumor Vascular Modulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-02-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/270272v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Serial Dependence in Position Perception Occurs at the Time of Perception 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/270272v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Observers perceive objects in the world as stable over space and time, even though the visual experience of those objects is often discontinuous and distorted due to masking, occlusion, camouflage, noise, etc. How are we able to easily and quickly achieve stable perception in spite of this constantly changing visual input? It was previously shown that observers experience serial dependence in the perception of features and objects, an effect that extends up to 15 seconds back in time. Here, we asked whether the visual system utilizes an objects prior physical location to inform future position assignments in order to maximize location stability of an object over time. To test this, we presented subjects with small targets at random angular locations relative to central fixation in the peripheral visual field. Subjects reported the perceived location of the target on each trial by adjusting a cursors position to match its location. Subjects made consistent errors when reporting the perceived position of the target on the current trial, mislocalizing it toward the position of the target in the preceding two trials (Experiment 1). This pull in position perception occurred even when a response was not required on the previous trial (Experiment 2). In addition, we show that serial dependence in perceived position occurs immediately after stimulus presentation, and is a fast stabilization mechanism that does not require a delay (Experiment 3). This indicates that serial dependence occurs for position representations and facilitates the stable perception of objects in space. Taken together with previous work, our results show that serial dependence occurs at many stages of visual processing, from initial position assignment to object categorization.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Manassi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liberman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kosovicheva, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitney, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-02-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/270272</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Serial Dependence in Position Perception Occurs at the Time of Perception]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-02-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/275529v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Network-based prediction of protein interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/275529v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
As biological function emerges through interactions between a cells molecular constituents, understanding cellular mechanisms requires us to catalogue all physical interactions between proteins [1-4]. Despite spectacular advances in high-throughput mapping, the number of missing human protein-protein interactions (PPIs) continues to exceed the experimentally documented interactions [5, 6]. Computational tools that exploit structural, sequence or network topology information are increasingly used to fill in the gap, using the patterns of the already known interactome to predict undetected, yet biologically relevant interactions [7-9]. Such network-based link prediction tools rely on the Triadic Closure Principle (TCP) [10-12], stating that two proteins likely interact if they share multiple interaction partners. TCP is rooted in social network analysis, namely the observation that the more common friends two individuals have, the more likely that they know each other [13, 14]. Here, we offer direct empirical evidence across multiple datasets and organisms that, despite its dominant use in biological link prediction, TCP is not valid for most protein pairs. We show that this failure is fundamental - TCP violates both structural constraints and evolutionary processes. This understanding allows us to propose a link prediction principle, consistent with both structural and evo-lutionary arguments, that predicts yet uncovered protein interactions based on paths of length three (L3). A systematic computational cross-validation shows that the L3 principle significantly outperforms existing link prediction methods. To experimentally test the L3 predictions, we perform both large-scale high-throughput and pairwise tests, finding that the predicted links test positively at the same rate as previously known interactions, suggesting that most (if not all) predicted interactions are real. Combining L3 predictions with experimen-tal tests provided new interaction partners of FAM161A, a protein linked to retinitis pigmentosa, offering novel insights into the molecular mechanisms that lead to the disease. Because L3 is rooted in a fundamental biological principle, we expect it to have a broad applicability, enabling us to better understand the emergence of biological function under both healthy and pathological conditions.nnSummaryWe unveil a fundamental organizing principle of biological networks and demonstrate its predictive power for uncovering novel protein interactions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kovacs, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luck, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spirohn, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pollis, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlabach, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bian, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, D.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kishore, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calderwood, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vidal, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-03-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/275529</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Network-based prediction of protein interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-03-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/279968v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Prolonged lag time results in small colony variants and reflects a sub-population of persisters in vivo 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/279968v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Treatment failure and recurrent infections can occur even when patients are treated with antibiotics to which bacteria are susceptible. These treatment failures could be due to a sub-population of bacteria persisting through the treatment. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that such bacterial persisters manifest in clinical samples as small colony variants (SCVs). We worked with the bacterial pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, where SCVs are frequently observed in clinics. The small size of SCV-colonies is often considered to be the result of mutations that reduce the bacterial growth rate. Alternatively, it is possible that the small colony size could result from a long lag time of bacteria in plated samples. We used automated plate imaging and single-cell microscopy to precisely quantify growth kinetics of bacteria sampled from patient and mice abscesses, and from low-pH in vitro cultures mimicking the host. Under these conditions, the small colony size was the consequence of a long lag time and was associated with tolerance towards antibiotics. We found that bacteria with a long lag time emerged de novo during the growth phase in the murine abscess as well as in the low-pH in vitro cultures, and that their proportion increased during stationary phase. Antibiotic exposure further increased the proportion of bacteria with a long lag time. Thus, the persisters found in low-pH host compartments could be a cause of treatment failure, and antibiotic treatment potentially aggravates the problem. These insights call for antibiotic treatment strategies that explicitly address the problem of persister formation.nnSignificance StatementBacterial pathogens often contain subpopulations that are multidrug tolerant and metabolically inactive. These subpopulations are known as persisters and are hypothesised to be linked to treatment failure and recurrent infections even in bacteria that are not genetically resistant to antibiotics. Identifying persisters in clinical samples remains a challenge due to their metabolicaly active state. Here, we used time-lapse plate imaging and single cell microscopy to link the presence of persisters to the nonstable small colony variant (SCV) phenotype that is observed in some Staphylococcus aureus infections. These findings may help to identify treatment regimens that prevent or address the emergence of persistence and thus to reduce relapses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vulin, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leimer, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huemer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ackermann, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zinkernagel, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-03-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/279968</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Prolonged lag time results in small colony variants and reflects a sub-population of persisters in vivo]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-03-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/283275v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Variability and compensation of cardiomycoyte ionic conductances at the population level 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/283275v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Conductances of ion channels and transporters controlling cardiac excitation may vary in a population of subjects with different cardiac gene expression patterns. However, the amount of variability and its origin are not quantitatively known. We propose a new computational method to predict this variability that consists of finding combinations of conductances generating a normal intracellular Ca2+ transient without any constraint on the action potential. Furthermore, we validate experimentally its predictions using the Hybrid Mouse Diversity Panel, a model system of genetically diverse mouse strains that allows us to quantify inter-subject versus intra-subject variability. The method predicts that conductances of inward Ca2+ and outward K+ currents compensate each other to generate a normal Ca2+ transient in good quantitative agreement with current measurements in ventricular myocytes from hearts of different isogenic strains. Our results suggest that a feedback mechanism sensing the aggregate Ca2+ transient of the heart suffices to regulate ionic conductances.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rees, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, J.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santolini, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lusis, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-03-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/283275</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Variability and compensation of cardiomycoyte ionic conductances at the population level]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-03-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/298158v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Nearshore corals on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System on pace to cease growing as soon as year 2110 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/298158v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Anthropogenic global change and local anthropogenic stressors are decreasing coral growth and survival globally, thus altering the structure and function of coral reef ecosystems. We show that skeletal extension rates of nearshore colonies of Siderastrea siderea and Pseudodiploria strigosa across the Belize Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System (MBRS) have declined at average rates of 0.01 and 0.08 mm/yr, respectively, over approximately the past century, while offshore conspecifics exhibited no significant trend in extension with time. This caused extension rates of nearshore colonies to converge with their historically slower-growing offshore conspecifics. Bleaching events negatively impacted extension rates in S. siderea but not in P. strigosa. The more negative trend in linear extension for nearshore versus offshore colonies may arise from ocean warming combined with stronger land-based anthropogenic stressors within nearshore environments. Extrapolating these trends in linear extension into the future suggests that nearshore P. strigosa and S. siderea will cease growing by years 2110 and 2370, respectively.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Baumann, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ries, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rippe, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Courtney, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aichelman, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Westfield, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castillo, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/298158</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Nearshore corals on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System on pace to cease growing as soon as year 2110]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/298315v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Quantifying the risk of local Zika virus transmission in the continental US during the 2015-2016 ZIKV epidemic 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/298315v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundLocal mosquito-borne Zika virus (ZIKV) transmission has been reported in two counties of the continental United State (US), prompting the issuance of travel, prevention, and testing guidance across the continental US. Large uncertainty, however, surrounds the quantification of the actual risk of ZIKV introduction and autochthonous transmission across different areas of the US.nnMethodWe present a framework for the projection of ZIKV autochthonous transmission in the continental US during the 2015-2016 epidemic, using a data-driven stochastic and spatial epidemic model accounting for seasonal, environmental and detailed population data. The model generates an ensemble of travel-related case counts and simulate their potential to trigger local transmission at individual level.nnResultsWe estimate the risk of ZIKV introduction and local transmission at the county level and at the 0.025{degrees} x 0.025{degrees} cell level across the continental US. We provide a risk measure based on the probability of observing local transmission in a specific location during a ZIKV epidemic modeled after the one observed during the years 2015-2016. The high spatial and temporal resolutions of the model allow us to generate statistical estimates of the number of ZIKV introductions leading to local transmission in each location. We find that the risk is spatially heterogeneously distributed and concentrated in a few specific areas that account for less than 1% of the continental US population. Locations in Texas and Florida that have actually experienced local ZIKV transmission are among the places at highest risk according to our results. We also provide an analysis of the key determinants for local transmission, and identify the key introduction routes and their contributions to ZIKV spread in the continental US.nnConclusionsThis framework provides quantitative risk estimates, fully captures the stochas-ticity of ZIKV introduction events, and is not biased by the under-ascertainment of cases due to asymptomatic infections. It provides general information on key risk determinants and data with potential uses in defining public health recommendations and guidance about ZIKV risk in the US.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sun, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pastore y Piontti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chinazzi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mistry, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dean, N. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rojas, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merler, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poletti, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rossi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halloran, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Longini, I. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vespignani, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/298315</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Quantifying the risk of local Zika virus transmission in the continental US during the 2015-2016 ZIKV epidemic]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/306233v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Glial cells in the heart? Replicating the diversity of the myocardium with low-cost 3D models 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/306233v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Excitation-contraction (EC) coupling in the heart has, until recently, been solely accredited to cardiomyocytes. The inherent complexities of the heart make it difficult to examine nonmuscle contributions to contraction in vivo, and conventional in vitro models fail to capture multiple features and cellular heterogeneity of the myocardium. Here, we report on the development of a 3D cardiac Tissue towards recapitulating the architecture and composition of native myocardium in vitro. Cells are encapsulated within micropatterned gelatin-based hydrogels formed via visible light photocrosslinking. This system enables spatial control of cardiac microarchitecture, perturbation of the cellular composition, and functional measures of EC coupling via video microscopy and a custom algorithm to quantify beat frequency and degree of coordination. To demonstrate the robustness of these tools and evaluate the impact of altered cell population densities on cardiac Tissues, contractility and cell morphology were assessed with the inclusion of exogenous non-myelinating Schwann cells (SCs). Results demonstrate that the addition of exogenous SCs alter cardiomyocyte EC, profoundly inhibiting the response to electrical pacing. Computational modeling of connexin-mediated coupling suggests that SCs impact cardiomyocyte resting potential and rectification following depolarization. Cardiac Tissues hold potential for examining the role of cellular heterogeneity in heart health, pathologies, and cellular therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Soucy, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Askaryan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diaz, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Annabi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/306233</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Glial cells in the heart? Replicating the diversity of the myocardium with low-cost 3D models]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/308536v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Golgi stabilization, not its front-rear bias, is associated with EMT-enhanced fibrillar migration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/308536v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and maturation of collagen fibrils in the tumor microenvironment play a significant role in cancer cell invasion and metastasis. Confinement along fiber-like tracks enhances cell migration. To what extent and in what manner EMT further promotes migration in a microenvironment already conducive to migration is poorly understood. Here, we show that TGF{beta}-mediated EMT significantly enhances migration on fiber-like micropatterned tracks of collagen, doubling migration speed and quadrupling persistence relative to untreated mammary epithelial cells. Thus, cell-intrinsic EMT and extrinsic fibrillar tracks have non-redundant effects on motility. To better understand EMT-enhanced fibrillar migration, we investigated the regulation of Golgi positioning, which is involved in front-rear polarization and persistent cell migration. Confinement along fiber-like tracks has been reported to favor posterior Golgi positioning, whereas anterior positioning is observed during 2d wound healing. While EMT also regulates cell polarity, little is known about its effect on Golgi positioning. Here, we show that EMT induces a 2:1 rearward bias in Golgi positioning; however, positional bias explains less than 5% of single-cell variability in migration speed and persistence. Meanwhile, EMT significantly stabilizes Golgi positioning. Cells that enhance migration in response to TGF{beta} maintain Golgi position for 3-4 fold longer than untreated counterparts, irrespective of whether the Golgi is ahead or behind the nucleus. In fact, 35% of cells that respond to TGF{beta} exhibit a fully-committed Golgi phenotype with the organelle either in the anterior or posterior position for over 90% of the time. Furthermore, single-cell differences in Golgi stability capture up to 30% of variations in migration speed and persistence. These results lead us to propose that the Golgi is part of a core physical scaffold that distributes cell-generated forces necessary for migration. A stable scaffold more consistently, and therefore more productively, distributes forces over time, leading to efficient migration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Natividad, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lalli, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muthuswamy, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asthagiri, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/308536</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Golgi stabilization, not its front-rear bias, is associated with EMT-enhanced fibrillar migration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/311423v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Adult-born neurons maintain hippocampal cholinergic inputs and support working memory during aging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/311423v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adult neurogenesis is impaired in disorders of stress, memory, and cognition though its normal function remains unclear. Moreover, a systems level understanding of how a small number of young hippocampal neurons could dramatically influence brain function is lacking. We examined whether adult neurogenesis sustains hippocampal connections across the life span. Long-term suppression of neurogenesis as occurs during stress and aging resulted in a progressing decline in hippocampal acetylcholine and the slow emergence of profound working memory deficits. These deficits were accompanied by compensatory rewiring of cholinergic dentate gyrus inputs such that ventrally projecting neurons were recruited by the dorsal projection. Our study demonstrates that hippocampal neurogenesis supports memory by maintaining the septohippocampal circuit across the lifespan. It also provides a systems level explanation for the progressive nature of memory deterioration during normal and pathological aging and indicates that the brain connectome is malleable by experience.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kirshenbaum, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robson, V. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shansky, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savage, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leonardo, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dranovsky, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-04-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/311423</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Adult-born neurons maintain hippocampal cholinergic inputs and support working memory during aging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-04-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/320432v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Robust associative learning is sufficient to explain structural and dynamical properties of local cortical circuits 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/320432v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The ability of neural networks to associate successive states of network activity lies at the basis of many cognitive functions. Hence, we hypothesized that many ubiquitous structural and dynamical properties of local cortical networks result from associative learning. To test this hypothesis, we trained recurrent networks of excitatory and inhibitory neurons on memory sequences of varying lengths and compared network properties to those observed experimentally. We show that when the network is robustly loaded with near-maximum amount of associations it can support, it develops properties that are consistent with the observed probabilities of excitatory and inhibitory connections, shapes of connection weight distributions, overrepresentations of specific 3-neuron motifs, distributions of connection numbers in clusters of 3-8 neurons, sustained, irregular, and asynchronous firing activity, and balance of excitation and inhibition. What is more, memories loaded into the network can be retrieved even in the presence of noise comparable to the baseline variations in the postsynaptic potential. Confluence of these results suggests that many structural and dynamical properties of local cortical networks are simply a byproduct of associative learning.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stepanyants, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-05-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/320432</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Robust associative learning is sufficient to explain structural and dynamical properties of local cortical circuits]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-05-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/322008v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Lead-DBS v2: Toward a comprehensive pipeline for deep brain stimulation imaging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/322008v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a highly efficacious treatment option for movement disorders and a growing number of other indications are investigated in clinical trials. To ensure optimal treatment outcome, exact electrode placement is required. Moreover, to analyze the relationship between electrode location and clinical results, a precise reconstruction of electrode placement is required, posing specific challenges to the field of neuroimaging. Since 2014 the open source toolbox Lead-DBS is available, which aims at facilitating this process. The tool has since become a popular platform for DBS imaging. With support of a broad community of researchers worldwide, methods have been continuously updated and complemented by new tools for tasks such as multispectral nonlinear registration, structural / functional connectivity analyses, brain shift correction, reconstruction of microelectrode recordings and orientation detection of segmented DBS leads. The rapid development and emergence of these methods in DBS data analysis require us to revisit and revise the pipelines introduced in the original methods publication. Here we demonstrate the updated DBS and connectome pipelines of Lead-DBS using a single patient example with state-of-the-art high-field imaging as well as a retrospective cohort of patients scanned in a typical clinical setting at 1.5T. Imaging data of the 3T example patient is co-registered using five algorithms and nonlinearly warped into template space using ten approaches for comparative purposes. After reconstruction of DBS electrodes (which is possible using three methods and a specific refinement tool), the volume of tissue activated is calculated for two DBS settings using four distinct models and various parameters. Finally, four whole-brain tractography algorithms are applied to the patients preoperative diffusion MRI data and structural as well as functional connectivity between the stimulation volume and other brain areas are estimated using a total of eight approaches and datasets. In addition, we demonstrate impact of selected preprocessing strategies on the retrospective sample of 51 PD patients. We compare the amount of variance in clinical improvement that can be explained by the computer model depending on the method of choice.nnThis work represents a multi-institutional collaborative effort to develop a comprehensive, open source pipeline for DBS imaging and connectomics, which has already empowered several studies, and may facilitate a variety of future studies in the field.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Horn, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dembek, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kappel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boulay, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ewert, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tietze, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Husch, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perera, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neumann, W.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reisert, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Si, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oostenveld, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rorden, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeh, F.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herrington, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vorwerk, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuehn, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-05-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/322008</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Lead-DBS v2: Toward a comprehensive pipeline for deep brain stimulation imaging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-05-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/322321v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Understanding the impact of crosslinked PCL/PEG/GelMA electrospun nanofibers on bactericidal activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/322321v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Herein, we report the design of electrospun ultrathin fibers based on polycaprolactone (PCL), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA), and their potential bactericidal activity against three different bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). We evaluated the morphology, chemical structure and wettability before and after UV photocrosslinking of the produced scaffolds. Results showed that the developed scaffolds presented hydrophilic properties after PEG and GelMA incorporation. Our developed scaffolds were thus able to significantly reduce gram-positive, negative, and MRSA bacteria. Furthermore, we performed a series of study for better mechanistic understanding of the scaffolds bactericidal activity through protein adsorption study and analysis of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. In summary, we have demonstrated the design and generation of electrospun fibers with improved hydrophilicity and efficient bactericidal activity without the association of any antibiotics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>De-Paula, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghannadian, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Afewerki, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marciano, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Viana, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harb, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bassous, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Webster, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lobo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-05-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/322321</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Understanding the impact of crosslinked PCL/PEG/GelMA electrospun nanofibers on bactericidal activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-05-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/324194v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Fusion surface structure, function, and dynamics of gamete fusogen HAP2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/324194v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
HAP2 is a class II gamete fusogen in many eukaryotic kingdoms. A crystal structure of Chlamydomonas HAP2 shows a trimeric fusion state. Domains D1, D2.1 and D2.2 line the 3-fold axis; D3 and a stem pack against the outer surface. Surprisingly, hydrogen-deuterium exchange shows that surfaces of D1, D2.2 and D3 closest to the 3-fold axis are more dynamic than exposed surfaces. Three fusion helices in the fusion loop of each monomer expose hydrophobic residues at the trimer apex that are splayed from the 3-fold axis, leaving a solvent-filled cavity between the fusion loops in each monomer. At the base of the long fusion loop, Arg185 docks in a carbonyl cage. Comparisons to other structures, dynamics, and the greater effect on Chlamydomonas gamete fusion of mutation of axis-proximal than axis-distal fusion helices suggest that the apical portion of each monomer could tilt toward the 3-fold axis with merger of the fusion helices into a common fusion surface.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Feng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinello, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iacob, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snell, W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Springer, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-05-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/324194</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Fusion surface structure, function, and dynamics of gamete fusogen HAP2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-05-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/327056v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mitochondrial ClpX activates an essential metabolic enzyme through partial unfolding 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/327056v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mitochondria can control the activity, quality, and lifetime of their proteins with their autonomous system of chaperones, but the signals that direct substrate-chaperone interaction and outcome are poorly understood. We previously discovered that the mitochondrial AAA+ protein unfoldase ClpX (mtClpX) activates the initiating enzyme for heme biosynthesis, 5-aminolevulinic acid synthase (ALAS), by promoting incorporation of cofactor. Here, we ask how unfolding by mtClpX directs activation. We identified sequence and structural features in ALAS that position mtClpX and provide a grip for acting on ALAS. Observation of ALAS undergoing remodeling by mtClpX revealed that unfolding was limited to a subdomain extending from the mtClpX-binding site to the active site. Unfolding along this path was required for mtClpX to gate cofactor access to the ALAS active site. This targeted unfolding contrasts with the global unfolding canonically executed by ClpX homologs and suggests how substrate-chaperone interactions can direct the outcome of remodeling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kardon, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moroco, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-05-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/327056</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mitochondrial ClpX activates an essential metabolic enzyme through partial unfolding]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-05-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/331546v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Immunobiochemical reconstruction of influenza lung infection - Melanoma skin cancer interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/331546v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Our recent experimental results that combine a mouse model of influenza A virus (IAV) infection (A/H1N1/PR8) and a highly aggressive model of infection-unrelated cancer, B16-F10 skin melanoma, showed that acute influenza infection of the lung promotes distal melanoma growth in the dermis of the flank and leads to decreased host survival. Here, we proceed to ground the experimental observations in a mechanistic immunobiochemical model that incorporates the T cell receptor signaling pathway, various transcription factors, and a gene regulatory network (GRN). A core component of our model is a biochemical motif, which we call a Triple Incoherent Feed-Forward Loop (TIFFL), and which reflects known interactions between IRF4, Blimp-1, and Bcl-6. The different activity levels of the TIFFL components, as a function of the cognate antigen levels and the given inflammation context, manifest themselves in phenotypically distinct outcomes. Specifically, both the TIFFL reconstruction and quantitative estimates obtained from the model allowed us to formulate a hypothesis that it is the loss of the fundamental TIFFL-induced adaptation of the expression of PD-1 receptors on anti-melanoma CD8+ T cells that constitutes the essence of the previously unrecognized immunologic factor that promotes the experimentally observed distal tumor growth in the presence of acute non-ocogenic infection. We therefore hope that this work can further highlight the importance of adaptive mechanisms by which immune functions contribute to the balance between self and non-self immune tolerance, adaptive resistance, and the strength of TCR-induced activation, thus contributing to the understanding of a broader complexity of fundamental interactions between pathogens and tumors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nikolaev, E. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zloza, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-05-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/331546</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Immunobiochemical reconstruction of influenza lung infection - Melanoma skin cancer interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-05-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/345249v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Predict plant-derived xenomiRs from plant miRNA sequences using random forest and one-dimensional convolutional neural network models 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/345249v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundAn increasing number of studies reported that exogenous miRNAs (xenomiRs) can be detected in animal bodies, however, some others reported negative results. Some attributed this divergence to the selective absorption of plant-derived xenomiRs by animals.nnResultsHere, we analyzed 166 plant-derived xenomiRs reported in our previous study and 942 non-xenomiRs extracted from miRNA expression profiles of four species of commonly consumed plants. Employing statistics analysis and cluster analysis, our study revealed the potential sequence specificity of plant-derived xenomiRs. Furthermore, a random forest model and a one-dimensional convolutional neural network model were trained using miRNA sequence features and raw miRNA sequences respectively and then employed to predict unlabeled plant miRNAs in miRBase. A total of 241 possible plant-derived xenomiRs were predicted by both models. Finally, the potential functions of these possible plant-derived xenomiRs along with our previously reported ones in human body were analyzed.nnConclusionsOur study, for the first time, presents the systematic plant-derived xenomiR sequences analysis and provides evidence for selective absorption of plant miRNA by human body, which could facilitate the future investigation about the mechanisms underlying the transference of plant-derived xenomiR.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mao, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dou, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-06-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/345249</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Predict plant-derived xenomiRs from plant miRNA sequences using random forest and one-dimensional convolutional neural network models]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-06-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/349324v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Predicting perturbation patterns from the topology of biological networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/349324v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
High-throughput technologies, offering unprecedented wealth of quantitative data underlying the makeup of living systems, are changing biology. Notably, the systematic mapping of the relationships between biochemical entities has fueled the rapid development of network biology, offering a suitable framework to describe disease phenotypes and predict potential drug targets. Yet, our ability to develop accurate dynamical models remains limited, due in part to the limited knowledge of the kinetic parameters underlying these interactions. Here, we explore the degree to which we can make reasonably accurate predictions in the absence of the kinetic parameters. We find that simple dynamically agnostic models are sufficient to recover the strength and sign of the biochemical perturbation patterns observed in 87 biological models for which the underlying kinetics is known. Surprisingly, a simple distance-based model achieves 65% accuracy. We show that this predictive power is robust to topological and kinetic parameters perturbations, and we identify key network properties that can increase up to 80% the recovery rate of the true perturbation patterns. We validate our approach using experimental data on the chemotactic pathway in bacteria, finding that a network model of perturbation spreading predicts with ~80% accuracy the directionality of gene expression and phenotype changes in knock-out and overproduction experiments. These findings show that the steady advances in mapping out the topology of biochemical interaction networks opens avenues for accurate perturbation spread modeling, with direct implications for medicine and drug development.nnSignificance statementThe development of high-throughput technologies has allowed to map a significant proportion of interactions between biochemical entities in the cell. However, it is unclear how much information is lost given the lack of measurements on the kinetic parameters governing the dynamics of these interactions. Using biochemical networks with experimentally measured kinetic parameters, we show that a knowledge of the network topology offers 65% to 80% accuracy in predicting the impact of perturbation patterns. In other words, we can use the increasingly accurate topological models to approximate perturbation patterns, bypassing expensive kinetic constant measurement. These results could open new avenues in modeling drug action, and in identifying drug targets relying on the human interactome only.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Santolini, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barabasi, A.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-06-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/349324</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Predicting perturbation patterns from the topology of biological networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-06-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/351395v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The sequences near Chi sites allow the RecBCD pathway to avoid genomic rearrangements 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/351395v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bacterial recombinational repair is initiated by RecBCD, which creates a 3' single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) tail on each side of a double strand break (DSB). Each tail terminates in a Chi site sequence that is usually distant from the break. Once an ssDNA-RecA filament forms on a tail, the tail searches for homologous double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) to use as template for DSB repair. Here we show that the nucleoprotein filaments rarely trigger sufficient synthesis to form an irreversible repair unless a long strand exchange product forms at the 3' end of the filament. Our experimental data and modeling suggest that terminating both filaments with Chi sites allows recombinational repair to strongly suppress fatal genomic rearrangements resulting from mistakenly joining different copies of a repeated sequence after a DSB has occurred within a repeat. Taken together our evidence highlights cellular safe fail mechanisms that bacteria use to avoid potentially lethal situations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Prentiss, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godoy, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Danilowicz, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prevost, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tashjian, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-06-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/351395</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The sequences near Chi sites allow the RecBCD pathway to avoid genomic rearrangements]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-06-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/363440v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ancestral Roles of the Fam20C Family of Secreted Protein Kinases Revealed by Functional Analysis in C. elegans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/363440v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Fam20C is a secreted protein kinase mutated in Raine syndrome, a human skeletal disorder. In vertebrates, bone and enamel proteins are major Fam20C substrates. However, Fam20 kinases are conserved in invertebrates lacking bone and enamel, suggesting other ancestral functions. We show that FAMK-1, the C. elegans Fam20C ortholog, contributes to fertility, embryogenesis, and development. These functions are not fulfilled when FAMK-1 is retained in the early secretory pathway. During embryogenesis, FAMK-1 maintains inter-cellular partitions and prevents multinucleation; notably, temperature elevation or lowering cortical stiffness reduces requirement for FAMK-1 in this context. FAMK-1 is expressed in multiple adult tissues that undergo repeated mechanical strain, and selective expression in the spermatheca restores fertility. Informatic, biochemical and functional analysis implicate lectins as FAMK-1 substrates. These findings suggest that FAMK-1 phosphorylation of substrates, including lectins, in the late secretory pathway is important in embryonic and tissue contexts where cells are subjected to mechanical strain.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gerson-Gurwitz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Worby, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, K.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khaliullin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bouffard, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheerambathur, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oegema, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dixon, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desai, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-07-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/363440</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ancestral Roles of the Fam20C Family of Secreted Protein Kinases Revealed by Functional Analysis in C. elegans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-07-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/371617v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Using SMOG 2 to simulate complex biomolecular assemblies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/371617v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Over the last 20 years, the application of structure-based (G[o]-like) models has ranged from protein folding with coarse-grained models to all-atom representations of large-scale molecular assemblies. While there are many variants that may be employed, the common feature of these models is that some (or all) of the stabilizing energetic interactions are defined based on knowledge of a particular experimentally-obtained conformation. With the generality of this approach, there was a need for a versatile computational platform for designing and implementing this class of models. To this end, the SMOG 2 software package provides an easy-to-use interface, where the user has full control of the model parameters. This software allows the user to edit XML-formatted files in order to provide definitions of new structure-based models. SMOG 2 reads these "template" files and maps the interactions onto specific structures, which are provided in PDB format. The force field files produced by SMOG 2 may then be used to perform simulations with a variety of popular molecular dynamics suites. In this chapter, we describe some of the key features of the SMOG 2 package, while providing examples and strategies for applying these techniques to complex (often large-scale) molecular assemblies, such as the ribosome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Levi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandarkar, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohanty, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noel, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-07-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/371617</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Using SMOG 2 to simulate complex biomolecular assemblies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-07-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/385583v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In vitro determination of the CB1 efficacy of illicit synthetic cannabinoids 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/385583v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSEThe morbidity and mortality associated with recreational use of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) is a major health concern, and may involve over-activation of CB1 receptors. Thus, we sought to determine the efficacy of 13 SCRAs at CB1 using receptor depletion with the irreversible CB1 antagonist AM6544 followed by fitting the curve with the Black and Leff operational model to calculate efficacy.nnEXPERIMENTAL APPROACHReceptor depletion in mouse AtT-20 neuroblastoma cells stably expressing human CB1 was achieved by pre-treatment of cells with AM6544 (10 {micro}M, 60 mins). The CB1-mediated hyperpolarisation of AtT20 cells was measured using membrane potential dye. From data fit to the operational model, the efficacy (tau) and affinity (KA) parameters were obtained for each drug.nnKEY RESULTSAM6544 did not affect the potency or maximal effect of native somatostatin receptor-induced hyperpolarisation (Control, pEC50 9.13 {+/-} 0.05, Emax 38 {+/-} 1%; AM6544 treated pEC50 9.18 {+/-} 0.04, Emax 39 {+/-} 0.7%). The tau value of {triangleup}9-THC was 70-fold less than the reference CB-agonist CP55940, and 240-fold less than the highest efficacy SCRA, 5F-MDMB-PICA. Most of the SCRAs had about 50% of the efficacy of CP55940. There was no correlation between the tau and KA values for any SCRA.nnCONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONSAll the SCRA tested showed substantially higher agonist activity at CB1 than {triangleup}9-THC, which may contribute to the adverse effects seen with these drugs but not {triangleup}9-THC, although the mechanisms underlying SCRA toxicity are still poorly defined.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sachdev, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vemuri, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banister, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Longworth, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kassiou, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santiago, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makriyannis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connor, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/385583</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In vitro determination of the CB1 efficacy of illicit synthetic cannabinoids]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/387647v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Propionic acid enhances the virulence of Crohn’s disease-associated adherent-invasive Escherichia coli 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/387647v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The short chain fatty acid propionic acid (PA) is a bacteria-derived human intestinal antimicrobial and immune modulator used widely in Western food production and agriculture. Here we examine the effect of PA on the pathogenicity of the Crohns disease-associated microbe, adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC). Passage of AIEC through a murine model, where the low intestinal PA levels were increased to replicate those of the human intestine, led to the recovery of AIEC post-infection that had significantly increased virulence. These phenotypic changes, including increased adhesion to intestinal epithelial cells and biofilm formation, could be replicated in AIEC in vitro through exposure to PA alone. This in vitro exposure of AIEC to PA fundamentally changed AIEC virulence, with strains exposed to PA in vitro subsequently persisting at 20-fold higher levels in a murine model compared to non-exposed strains. RNA-sequencing identified the transcriptional changes in AIEC in response to PA with upregulation of genes involved in biofilm formation, stress responses, metabolism, membrane integrity and alternative carbon source utilisation. These PA induced changes in virulence could be replicated in a number of E. coli isolates from Crohns disease patients. Finally, removal of the PA selective pressure was sufficient to reverse these phenotypic changes. Our data indicate that exposure of AIEC to PA evolves bacteria that are both resistant to this natural human intestinal antimicrobial and increasingly virulent in its presence.nnImportanceExposure to propionic acid, an intestinal short chain fatty acid and commonly used antimicrobial in Western food production, induces significant virulence associated phenotypic changes in adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ormsby, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meikle, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstone, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McIntosh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wessel, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hulme, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McConnachie, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connolly, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roe, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fitzgerald, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gerasimidis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morrison, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wall, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/387647</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Propionic acid enhances the virulence of Crohn’s disease-associated adherent-invasive Escherichia coli]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/388900v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Adaptation of proteins to the cold in Antarctic fish: A role for Methionine? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/388900v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The evolution of antifreeze glycoproteins has enabled notothenioid fish to flourish in the freezing waters of the Southern Ocean. Whilst successful at the biodiversity level to life in the cold, paradoxically at the cellular level these stenothermal animals have problems producing, folding and degrading proteins at their ambient temperatures of down to -1.86{degrees}C. In this first multi-species transcriptome comparison of the amino acid composition of notothenioid proteins with temperate teleost proteins, we show that, unlike psychrophilic bacteria, Antarctic fish provide little evidence for the mass alteration of protein amino acid composition to enhance protein folding and reduce protein denaturation in the cold. The exception was the significant over-representation of positions where leucine in temperate fish proteins was replaced by methionine in the notothenioid orthologues. Although methionine may increase stability in critical proteins, we hypothesise that a more likely explanation for the extra methionines is that they have been preferentially assimilated into the genome because they act as redox sensors. This redox hypothesis is supported by the enrichment of duplicated genes within the notothenioid transcriptomes which centre around Mapk signalling, a major pathway in the cellular cascades associated with responses to environmental stress. Whilst notothenioid fish show cold-associated problems with protein homeostasis, they may have modified only a selected number of biochemical pathways to work efficiently below 0{degrees}C. Even a slight warming of the Southern Ocean might disrupt the critical functions of this handful of key pathways with considerable impacts for the functioning of this ecosystem in the future.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Berthelot, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clarke, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desvignes, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Detrich, H. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flicek, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peck, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peters, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Postlethwait, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/388900</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Adaptation of proteins to the cold in Antarctic fish: A role for Methionine?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/390856v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A model of repetitive mild brain injury without symptoms – risk for Parkinson’s disease with aging? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/390856v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Objectives: To test the hypothesis that repetitive mild traumatic brain injury in early life may be a potential risk factor for Parkinson's disease. Methods: A closed-head momentum exchange model was used to produce one or three mild concussions in young adult male rats as compare to non-injured, age and weight-matched controls. Six-seven weeks post-injury, rats were studied for deficits in cognitive and motor function Changes in brain anatomy and function were evaluated through analysis of resting state functional connectivity, diffusion weighted imaging with quantitative anisotropy and immunohistochemistry for neuroinflammation. Results: Head injuries occurred without skull fracture or signs of intracranial bleeding or contusion. There were no significant differences in cognitive or motors behaviors between experimental groups. Rats concussed three times showed altered diffusivity in white matter tracts, basal ganglia, central amygdala, brainstem, and cerebellum. With a single concussion, the affected areas were limited to the caudate/putamen and central amygdala. Disruption of functional connectivity was most pronounced with three concussions as the midbrain dopamine system, hippocampus and brainstem/cerebellum showed hypoconnectivity. The suprachiasmatic nucleus was isolated from all functional connections. Interestingly, rats exposed to one concussion showed enhanced functional connectivity (or hyperconnectivity) across brain sites, particularly between the olfactory system and the cerebellum. Immunostaining for microglia activation showed inflammation in striatum and substantia nigra with three concussions but not with one. Interpretation: Neuroradiological and immunohistochemical evidence of altered brain structure and function, particularly in striatal and midbrain dopaminergic areas, persists long after mild repetitive head injury. These changes may be long lasting and serve as early biomarkers of neurodegeneration and risk for Parkinson's disease with aging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kulkarni, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morrison, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iriah, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lange, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kennedy, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sabrick, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neuroth, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffman, G. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferris, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Praveen Kulkanri, Thomas R Morrison, Xuezhu Cai, Sade Iriah, Mary S Lange, Laprosha Kennedy, Julia S,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/390856</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A model of repetitive mild brain injury without symptoms – risk for Parkinson’s disease with aging?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/391367v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Visuomotor Control of Ankle Joint using Position vs. Force 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/391367v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ankle joint plays a critical role in daily activities involving interactions with environment using force and position control. Neuromechanical dysfunctions (e.g. due to stroke or brain injury), therefore, have a major impact on individuals quality of life. The effective design of neurorehabilitation protocols for robotic rehabilitation platforms, relies on understanding the control characteristics of the ankle joint in interaction with external environment using force and position. This is particularly of interest since the findings in upper-limb may not be generalizable to the lower-limb. This study aimed to characterize the skilled performance of ankle joint in visuomotor position and force control. A 2-degree of freedom (DOF) robotic footplate was used to measure individuals force and position. Healthy individuals (n = 27) used ankle force or position for point-to-point and tracking control tasks in 1-DOF and 2-DOF virtual game environments. Subjects performance was quantified as a function of accuracy and completion time. While the performance measures in 1-DOF control tasks were comparable, the subjects performance in 2-DOF tasks was significantly better with position control. Subjective questionnaires on the perceived difficulty matched the objective experimental results; suggesting that the poor performance in force control was not due to experimental setup or fatigue but can be attributed to the different levels of challenge needed in neural control. It is inferred that in visuomotor coordination, the neuromuscular specialization of ankle provides better control over position rather than force. These findings can inform the design of neuro-rehabilitation platforms, selection of effective tasks, and therapeutic protocols.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Farjadian, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nabian, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hartman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yen, S.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nasseroleslami, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/391367</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Visuomotor Control of Ankle Joint using Position vs. Force]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/395772v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
22kHz and 55kHz ultrasonic vocalizations differentially influence neural and behavioral outcomes: Implications for modeling anxiety via auditory stimuli in the rat 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/395772v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The communicative role of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in rodents is well established, with distinct USVs indicative of different affective states. USVs in the 22kHz range are typically emitted by adult rats when in anxiety-or fear-provoking situations (e.g. predator odor, social defeat), while 55kHz range USVs are emitted in appetitive situations (e.g., play, anticipation of reward). Previous work indicates that USVs (real-time and playback) can effectively communicate these affective states and influence changes in behavior and neural activity of the receiver. Changes in cFos activation following 22kHz USVs have been seen in cortical and limbic regions involved in anxiety, including the basolateral amygdala (BLA). However, it is unknown how USV playback influences cFos activity within the basal nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), a region also thought to be critical in processing anxiety-related information. The present work sought to characterize distinct behavioral, physiological, and neural responses in rats presented with aversive (22kHz) compared to appetitive (55kHz) USVs or silence. Our findings show that rats exposed to 22kHz USVs: 1) engage in anxiety-like behaviors in the open field and elevated zero maze, and 2) show distinct patterns of cFos activation within the BLA and BNST that contrast those seen in 55kHz playback. Specifically, 22kHz USVs increased cFos density in the anterodorsal nuclei, while 55kHz playback increased cFos in the oval nucleus of the BNST. These results provide important groundwork for leveraging ethologically-relevant stimuli in the rat to improve our understanding of anxiety-related responses in both typical and pathological populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Demaestri, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenhouse, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Honeycutt, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/395772</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[22kHz and 55kHz ultrasonic vocalizations differentially influence neural and behavioral outcomes: Implications for modeling anxiety via auditory stimuli in the rat]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/399121v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DART-ID increases single-cell proteome coverage 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/399121v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Analysis by liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) can identify and quantify thousands of proteins in microgram-level samples, such as those comprised of thousands of cells. This process, however, remains challenging for smaller samples, such as the proteomes of single mammalian cells, because reduced protein levels reduce the number of confidently sequenced peptides. To alleviate this reduction, we developed Data-driven Alignment of Retention Times for IDentification (DART-ID). This method implements global retention time (RT) alignment to infer peptide RTs across experiments. DART-ID then incor-porates the global RT-estimates within a principled Bayesian framework to increase the confidence in correct peptide-spectrum-matches and decrease confidence in incorrect peptide-spectrum-matches. Applying DART-ID to hundreds of monocyte and T-cell samples pre-pared by the Single Cell Proteomics by Mass Spectrometry (SCoPE-MS) design increased the number of data points by 30 - 50% at 1% FDR, and thus decreased missing data. Quantification benchmarks indicate excellent quantification of peptides upgraded by DART-ID and support their utility for downstream analysis, such as identifying cell types and cell-type specific proteins. The additional datapoints provided by DART-ID boost the statistical power and double the number of proteins identified as differentially abundant in monocytes and T-cells. DART-ID can be applied to diverse experimental designs and is freely available at http://github.com/SlavovLab/DART-ID.

Author SummaryIdentifying and quantifying proteins in single cells gives researchers the ability to tackle complex biological problems that involve single cell heterogeneity, such as the treatment of solid tumors. Mass spectrometry analysis of peptides can identify their sequence from their masses and the masses of their fragment ion, but often times these pieces of evidence are insufficient for a confident peptide identification. This problem is exacerbated when analyzing lowly abundant samples such as single cells. To identify even peptides with weak mass spectra, DART-ID incorporates their retention time - the time when they elute from the liquid chromatography used to physically separate them. We present both a novel method of aligning the retention times of peptides across experiments, as well as a rigorous framework for using the estimated retention times to enhance peptide sequence identification. Incorporating the retention time as additional evidence leads to a substantial increase in the number of samples in which proteins are confidently identified and quantified.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franks, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/399121</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DART-ID increases single-cell proteome coverage]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/399188v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Parvalbumin loss following chronic sub-anesthetic NMDA antagonist treatment is age-dependent in the hippocampus: Implications for modeling NMDA hypofunction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/399188v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A marked decrease in parvalbumin (PV), a calcium-binding protein specific to a subset of GABAergic neurons, is a consistent finding in postmortem schizophrenic brain tissue. This reduction is selective to PV and is regionally specific: occurring primarily in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus (HPC) of patients. Rodent models of NMDA receptor hypofunction utilizing NMDA antagonist treatments - e.g. ketamine (KET) - show schizophrenia-like cognitive and behavioral impairments with parallel changes in PV. While decreased PV is considered a hallmark of neuropathology in schizophrenia, previous work elucidating the effects of KET administration on PV are contradictory, with findings suggesting decreased, increased, or no change in PV expression. Upon close examination of the procedures used across studies, there are two primary inconsistencies, including: 1) the age of animals used; and 2) the timeline of post-treatment tissue collection. To better understand whether these key differences impact observed PV changes, the present study investigated the impact of age and time of sacrifice on chronic KET-induced PV changes in the neocortex and HPC. Our findings suggest an effect of age, but not sacrifice timeline, on PV cell count following 14 days of sub-anesthetic KET treatment. We provide evidence that 1-month-old rats exhibit significant KET-induced HPC PV decreases, while adult rats show a modest increase in HPC PV following chronic KET. Taken together, we propose that PV is a dynamic marker, and that changes in cell counts - and their interpretation - following NDMA antagonist treatment should be considered in the context of age.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Honeycutt, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chrobak, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/399188</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Parvalbumin loss following chronic sub-anesthetic NMDA antagonist treatment is age-dependent in the hippocampus: Implications for modeling NMDA hypofunction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/399774v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Automated sample preparation for high-throughput single-cell proteomics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/399774v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A major limitation to applying quantitative LC-MS/MS proteomics to small samples, such as single cells, are the losses incured during sample cleanup. To relieve this limitation, we developed a Minimal ProteOmic sample Preparation (mPOP) method for culture-grown mammalian cells. mPOP obviates cleanup and thus eliminates cleanup-related losses while expediting sample preparation and simplifying its automation. Bulk SILAC samples processed by mPOP or by conventional urea-based methods indicated that mPOP results in complete cell lysis and accurate relative quantification. We integrated mPOP lysis with the Single Cell ProtEomics by Mass Spectrometry (SCoPE-MS) sample preparation, and benchmarked the quantification of such samples on a Q-exactive instrument. The results demonstrate low noise and high technical reproducibility. Then, we FACS sorted single U-937, HEK-293, and mouse ES cells into 96-well plates and analyzed them by automated mPOP and SCoPE-MS. The quantified proteins enabled separating the single cells by cell-type and cell-division-cycle phase.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harmange, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perlman, D. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emmott, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niziolek, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Budnik, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/399774</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Automated sample preparation for high-throughput single-cell proteomics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/400721v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rapid prototyping of a multilayer microphysiological system for primary human intestinal epithelial culture 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/400721v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Here we report benchtop fabrication of multilayer thermoplastic organs-on-chips via laser cut and assembly of double sided adhesives. Biocompatibility was evaluated with Caco-2 cells and primary human intestinal organoids. Chips with Luer fluidic interfaces were economical ($2 per chip) and were fabricated in just hours without use of specialized bonding techniques. Compared with control static Transwell cultures, Caco-2 and organoids cultured on chips formed confluent monolayers expressing tight junctions with low permeability. Caco-2 cells on chip differentiated [~]4 times faster compared to controls and produced mucus. To demonstrate the robustness of laser cut and assembly, we fabricated a dual membrane, tri-layer gut chip integrating 2D monolayers, 3D cell culture, and a basal flow chamber. As proof of concept, we co-cultured a human, differentiated monolayer and intact organoids in a chip with multi-layered contacting compartments. The epithelium exhibited 3D tissue structure and organoids formed in close proximity to the adjacent monolayer. The favorable features of thermoplastics, such as low gas and water vapor permeability, in addition to rapid, facile, and economical fabrication of multilayered devices, make laser cut and assembly an ideal fabrication technique for developing organs-on-chips and studying multicellular tissues.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hosic, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Puzan, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lake, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breault, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murthy, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/400721</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rapid prototyping of a multilayer microphysiological system for primary human intestinal epithelial culture]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/402842v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Extracellular matrix stiffness regulates force transmission pathways in multicellular ensembles of human airway smooth muscle cells. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/402842v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
For an airway or a blood vessel to narrow, there must be a connected path that links the smooth muscle (SM) cells with each other, and transmits forces around the organ, causing it to constrict. Currently, we know very little about the mechanisms that regulate force transmission pathways in a multicellular SM ensemble. Here, we used extracellular matrix (ECM) micropatterning to study force transmission in a two-cell ensemble of SM cells. Using the two-SM cell ensemble, we demonstrate (a) that ECM stiffness acts as a switch that regulates whether SM force is transmitted through the ECM or through cell-cell connections. (b) Fluorescent imaging for adherens junctions and focal adhesions show the progressive loss of cell-cell borders and the appearance of focal adhesions with the increase in ECM stiffness (confirming our mechanical measurements). (c) At the same ECM stiffness, we show that the presence of a cell-cell border substantially decreases the overall contractility of the SM cell ensemble. Our results demonstrate that connectivity among SM cells is a critical factor to consider in the development of diseases such as asthma and hypertension.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Polio, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stasiak, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krishnan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parameswaran, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/402842</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Extracellular matrix stiffness regulates force transmission pathways in multicellular ensembles of human airway smooth muscle cells.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/408229v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integration of Molecular Interactome and Targeted Interaction Analysis to Identify a COPD Disease Network Module 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/408229v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The polygenic nature of complex diseases offers potential opportunities to utilize network-based approaches that leverage the comprehensive set of protein-protein interactions (the human interactome) to identify new genes of interest and relevant biological pathways. However, the incompleteness of the current human interactome prevents it from reaching its full potential to extract network-based knowledge from gene discovery efforts, such as genome-wide association studies, for complex diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Here, we provide a framework that integrates the existing human interactome information with new experimental protein-protein interaction data for FAM13A, one of the most highly associated genetic loci to COPD, to find a more comprehensive disease network module. We identified an initial disease network neighborhood by applying a random-walk method. Next, we developed a network-based closeness approach (CAB) that revealed 9 out of 96 FAM13A interacting partners identified by affinity purification assays were significantly close to the initial network neighborhood. Moreover, compared to a similar method (local radiality), the CAB approach predicts low-degree genes as potential candidates. The candidates identified by the network-based closeness approach were combined with the initial network neighborhood to build a comprehensive disease network module (163 genes) that was enriched with genes differentially expressed between controls and COPD subjects in alveolar macrophages, lung tissue, sputum, blood, and bronchial brushing datasets. Overall, we demonstrate an approach to find disease-related network components using new laboratory data to overcome incompleteness of the current interactome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sharma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kitsak, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cho, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ameli, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crapo, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beaty, T. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menche, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bakke, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santolini, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silverman, E. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-09-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/408229</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integration of Molecular Interactome and Targeted Interaction Analysis to Identify a COPD Disease Network Module]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-09-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/410084v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CluSim: a Python package for the comparison of clusterings and dendrograms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/410084v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Quantifying the similarity of clusterings is a fundamental step in data analysis. Clustering similarity is the basis for method evaluation, consensus clustering, and tracking the temporal evolution of clusters, among many other tasks. Here we provide CluSim, a comprehensive Python package for the comparison of partitions, overlapping clusterings, and hierarchical clusterings (dendrograms) with more than 20 similarity measures. The CluSim package provides both analytic and empirical methods for assessing the similarity of clusterings in the context of a random model, and provides the novel element-centric approaches for clustering similarity measure that we introduced recently. We illustrate the use of the package through two examples: an evaluation of the clustering of Gene Expression data in the context of different random models, and detailed analysis of model incongruence using element-centric comparisons between a set of phylogentic trees (dendrograms).nnAvailability and implementationThe CluSim Python package and accompanying jupyter notebook is available at https://github.com/Hoosier-Clusters/clusim with the MIT open source licence.nnContactajgates42@gmail.com or yyahn@iu.edu
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gates, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahn, Y.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-09-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/410084</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CluSim: a Python package for the comparison of clusterings and dendrograms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-09-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/414565v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
New Drosophila long-term memory genes revealed by assessing computational function prediction methods. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/414565v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A major bottleneck to our understanding of the genetic and molecular foundation of life lies in the ability to assign function to a gene and, subsequently, a protein. Traditional molecular and genetic experiments can provide the most reliable forms of identification, but are generally low-throughput, making such discovery and assignment a daunting task. The bottleneck has led to an increasing role for computational approaches. The Critical Assessment of Functional Annotation (CAFA) effort seeks to measure the performance of computational methods. In CAFA3 we performed selected screens, including an effort focused on long-term memory. We used homology and previous CAFA predictions to identify 29 key Drosophila genes, which we tested via a long-term memory screen. We identify 11 novel genes that are involved in long-term memory formation and show a high level of connectivity with previously identified learning and memory genes. Our study provides first higher-order behavioral assay and organism screen used for CAFA assessments and revealed previously uncharacterized roles of multiple genes as possible regulators of neuronal plasticity at the boundary of information acquisition and memory formation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kacsoh, B. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barton, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mooney, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friedberg, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greene, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bosco, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-09-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/414565</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[New Drosophila long-term memory genes revealed by assessing computational function prediction methods.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-09-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/436824v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Accurate registration of 3D time-lapse microscopy images 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/436824v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In vivo imaging experiments often require automated detection and tracking of changes in the specimen. This problem, however, can be hindered by variations in the position and orientation of the specimen relative to the microscope, as well as by linear and nonlinear deformations. Here, we present a feature-based registration method, coupled with translation, rigid, affine, and B-spline transformations, designed to address these issues in 3D time-lapse microscopy images. In this method, features are detected as local intensity maxima in the source and target image stacks, and their similarity matrix is used as an input to the Hungarian algorithm to establish initial correspondences. Random Sampling Consensus algorithm is then employed to eliminate outliers. The resulting set of corresponding features is used to determine the optimal transformations. Accuracy of the proposed algorithm was tested on fluorescently labeled axons imaged over a 48-day period with a two-photon laser scanning microscope. For this, multiple axons in individual stacks of images were traced semi-manually in 3D, and the distances between the corresponding traces were measured before and after the registration. The results show that there is a progressive improvement in the registration accuracy with increasing complexity of the transformations. In particular, an accuracy of less than 1 voxel (0.26 m) was achieved with a regularized B-spline transformation. To illustrate the utility of the proposed method, registered images were used to automatically track synaptic boutons on axons over the entire duration of the experiment, yielding 99% precision and recall.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mousavi Kahaki, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stepanyants, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-10-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/436824</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Accurate registration of 3D time-lapse microscopy images]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-10-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/441071v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Artificial neural network filters for enhancing 3D optical microscopy images of neurites 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/441071v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The ability to extract accurate morphology of labeled neurons from microscopy images is crucial for mapping brain connectivity and for understanding changes in connectivity that underlie learning and memory formation. There are, however, two problems, specific to optical microscopy imaging of neurons, which make accurate neuron tracing exceedingly challenging: (i) neurites can appear broken due to inhomogeneous labeling and (ii) neurites can appear fused in 3D due to limited resolution. Here, we propose and evaluate several artificial neural network (NN) architectures and conventional image enhancement filters with the aim of solving both problems. To evaluate the effects of filtering, we examine the following four image quality metrics: normalized intensity in the cross-over regions between neurites, radius of neurites, coefficient of variation of intensity along neurites, and local background to neurite intensity ratio. Our results show that NN filters, trained on optimized semi-manual traces of neurites, can significantly outperform conventional filters. In particular, U-Net based filtering can virtually eliminate background intensity, while also reducing radius of neurites by 23% to nearly 1 voxel, decreasing intensity in the cross-over regions between neurites by 22%, and reducing variations in intensity along neurites by 26%. These results suggest that including a NN filtering step, which does not require much extra time or computing power, can be beneficial for neuron tracing projects.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mousavi Kahaki, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stepanyants, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-10-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/441071</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Artificial neural network filters for enhancing 3D optical microscopy images of neurites]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-10-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/441386v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The RhoGAP SPV-1 regulates calcium signaling to control the contractility of the C. elegans spermatheca during embryo transits. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/441386v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Contractility of the non-muscle and smooth muscle cells that comprise biological tubing is regulated by the Rho-ROCK and calcium signaling pathways. Although many molecular details about these signaling pathways are known, less is known about how they are coordinated spatiotemporally in biological tubes. The spermatheca of the C. elegans reproductive system enables study of the signaling pathways regulating actomyosin contractility in live adult animals. The RhoGAP SPV-1 was previously identified as a negative regulator of RHO-1/Rho and spermathecal contractility. Here, we uncover a role for SPV-1 as a key regulator of calcium signaling. spv-1 mutants expressing the calcium indicator GCaMP in the spermatheca exhibit premature calcium release, elevated calcium levels, and disrupted spatial regulation of calcium signaling during spermathecal contraction. Although RHO-1 is required for spermathecal contractility, RHO-1 does not play a significant role in regulating calcium. In contrast, activation of CDC-42 recapitulates many aspects of spv-1 mutant calcium signaling. Depletion of cdc-42 by RNAi does not suppress the premature or elevated calcium signal seen in spv-1 mutants, suggesting other targets remain to be identified. Our results suggest SPV-1 works through both the Rho-ROCK and calcium signaling pathways to coordinate cellular contractility.nnHighlight SummaryThrough in vivo imaging of the calcium sensor GCaMP, we show that the RhoGAP SPV-1 is a key regulator of calcium signaling in the C. elegans spermatheca. Our data suggests SPV-1 acts at least partially through the small GTPase CDC-42 to modulate calcium signaling, while also acting on RHO-1 to modulate Rho-ROCK signaling. This places SPV-1 as a central regulator of cellular contractility.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bouffard, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cecchetelli, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clifford, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sethi, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zaidel-Bar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-10-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/441386</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The RhoGAP SPV-1 regulates calcium signaling to control the contractility of the C. elegans spermatheca during embryo transits.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-10-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/442681v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The landscape of intrinsic and evolved fluoroquinolone resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii includes suppression of drug-induced prophage replication 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/442681v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The emergence of fluoroquinolone resistance in nosocomial pathogens has restricted the clinical efficacy of this antibiotic class. In Acinetobacter baumannii, the majority of clinical isolates now show high-level resistance due to mutations in gyrA (DNA gyrase) and parC (Topo IV). To investigate the molecular basis for fluoroquinolone resistance, an exhaustive mutation analysis was performed in both drug sensitive and resistant strains to identify loci that alter the sensitivity of the organism to ciprofloxacin. To this end, parallel fitness tests of over 60,000 unique insertion mutations were performed in strains with various alleles in genes encoding the drug targets. The spectrum of mutations that altered drug sensitivity was found to be similar in the drug sensitive and double mutant gyrAparC background having resistance alleles in both genes. In contrast, introduction of a single gyrA resistance allele, resulting in preferential poisoning of Topo IV by ciprofloxacin, led to extreme alterations in the insertion mutation fitness landscape. The distinguishing feature of preferential Topo IV poisoning was induction of DNA synthesis in the region of two endogenous prophages, which appeared to occur in situ. Induction of the selective DNA synthesis in the gyrA background was also linked to enhanced activation of SOS response and heightened transcription of prophage genes relative to that observed in either the WT or gyrAparC double mutants. Therefore, the accumulation of mutations that result in the stepwise evolution of high ciprofloxacin resistance is tightly connected to suppression of hyperactivation of the SOS response and endogenous prophage DNA synthesis.nnImportanceFluoroquinolones have been extremely successful antibiotics. Their clinical efficacy derives from the ability to target multiple bacterial enzymes critical to DNA replication, the topoisomerases DNA gyrase and Topo IV. Unfortunately, mutations lowering drug affinity for both enzymes are now widespread, rendering these drugs ineffective for many pathogens. To undermine this form of resistance, we sought to understand how bacteria with target alterations differentially cope with fluoroquinolone exposures. We studied this problem in the nosocomial pathogen A. baumannii, which causes resistant, life-threating infections. Employing genome-wide approaches, we uncovered numerous pathways that could be exploited to lower fluoroquinolone resistance independently of target alteration. Remarkably, fluoroquinolone targeting of Topo IV in specific mutants caused dramatic prophage hyperinduction, a response that was muted in strains with DNA gyrase as the primary target. This work demonstrates that resistance evolution via target modification can profoundly modulate the antibiotic stress response, revealing potential resistance-associated liabilities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Geisinger, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vargas-Cuebas, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mortman, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Syal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wainwright, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lazinski, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wood, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anthony, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Opijnen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isberg, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-10-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/442681</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The landscape of intrinsic and evolved fluoroquinolone resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii includes suppression of drug-induced prophage replication]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-10-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/454397v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In vitro model of inflammatory, hypoxia, and cancer stem cell signaling in pancreatic cancer using heterocellular 3-dimensional spheroids 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/454397v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
IntroductionAs one of the most aggressive cancers worldwide, pancreatic cancer is associated with an extremely poor prognosis. The pancreatic tumor microenvironment consists of cancer cells and other tumor associated cells. Cross-talk between these different cell types through various signaling molecules results in the development of a more aggressive and malignant phenotype. Additionally, due to the highly dysregulated vasculature of tumors, the inner tumor core becomes hypoxic and eventually necrotic. Therefore, there is a need for the development of a physiologically relevant in vitro model that recapitulates these dynamic cell-cell interactions and the 3-dimensional (3D) structure of pancreatic tumors.nnMethodsFour different 3D co-culture spheroid models using different combinations of Panc-1 tumor cells, J774.A1 macrophages, and NIH-3T3 fibroblast cell lines were reproducibly developed using the hanging drop technique in order to mimic the tumor microenvironment and to evaluate the differences in expression of various inflammatory, hypoxia, and cancer stem cell markers, including IL-8, TNF-, TGF-{beta}, HIF-1 HIF-2, SCF, and LDH-A. Additionally, immunofluorescence studies were employed to investigate whether these spheroids tested positive for a cancer stem cell population.nnResultsPronounced differences in morphology as well as expression of signalling markers were observed using qPCR, indicative of strong influences of co-culturing different cell lines. These models also tested positive for cancer stem cell (CSCs) markers based on immunofluorescence and qPCR analysis.nnConclusionOur results demonstrate the potential of 3D co-culture spheroid models to capture the inflammatory and hypoxic markers of pancreatic tumor microenvironment. We further demonstrate the presence of cancer cells with stem cell markers, similar to actual pancreatic cancer tumor. These spheroids present excellent in vitro system to study tumor-immune-stromal cell interactions as well as test deliverability of potential therapeutics in the tumor microenvironment with accurate physical and physiological barriers.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sursh, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mattheolabakis, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amiji, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-10-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/454397</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In vitro model of inflammatory, hypoxia, and cancer stem cell signaling in pancreatic cancer using heterocellular 3-dimensional spheroids]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-10-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/470971v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Proteostasis environment shapes higher-order epistasis operating on antibiotic resistance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/470971v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent studies have shown that higher-order epistasis is ubiquitous and can have large effects on complex traits. Yet, we lack frameworks for understanding how epistatic interactions are influenced by basic aspects of cell physiology. In this study, we assess how protein quality control machinery--a critical component of cell physiology--affects epistasis for different traits related to bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Specifically, we attempt to disentangle the interactions between different protein quality control genetic backgrounds and two sets of mutations: (i) SNPs associated with resistance to antibiotics in an essential bacterial enzyme (dihydrofolate reductase, or DHFR) and (ii) differing DHFR bacterial species-specific amino acid background sequences (Escherichia coli, Listeria grayi, and Chlamydia muridarum). In doing so, we add nuance to the generic observation that non-linear genetic interactions are widespread and capricious in nature, by proposing a mechanistically-grounded analysis of how proteostasis shapes epistasis. These findings simultaneously fortify and demystify the role of environmental context in modulating higher-order epistasis, with direct implications for evolutionary theory, genetic modification technology, and efforts to manage antimicrobial resistance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Guerrero, R. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scarpino, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodrigues, J. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hartl, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ogbunugafor, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-11-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/470971</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Proteostasis environment shapes higher-order epistasis operating on antibiotic resistance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-11-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/475533v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mathematical Details on a Cancer Resistance Model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/475533v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The primary factor limiting the success of chemotherapy in cancer treatment is the phenomenon of drug resistance. We have recently introduced a framework for quantifying the effects of induced and non-induced resistance to cancer chemotherapy [11, 10]. In this work, we expound on the details relating to an optimal control problem outlined in [10]. The control structure is precisely characterized as a concatenation of bang-bang and path-constrained arcs via the Pontryagin Maximum Principle and differential Lie algebra techniques. A structural identifiability analysis is also presented, demonstrating that patient-specific parameters may be measured and thus utilized in the design of optimal therapies prior to the commencement of therapy. For completeness, a detailed analysis of existence results is also included.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Greene, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanchez-Tapia, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-11-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/475533</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mathematical Details on a Cancer Resistance Model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-11-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/478842v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Historical contingency shapes adaptive radiation in Antarctic fishes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/478842v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adaptive radiation illustrates the links between ecological opportunity, natural selection, and the generation of biodiversity (1). Central to adaptive radiation is the association between a diversifying lineage and the evolution of key traits that facilitate the utilization of novel environments or resources (2, 3). However, is not clear whether adaptive evolution or historical contingency is more important for the origin of key phenotypic traits in adaptive radiation (4, 5). Here we use targeted sequencing of >250,000 loci across 46 species to examine hypotheses concerning the origin and diversification of key traits in the adaptive radiation of Antarctic notothenioid fishes. Contrary to expectations of adaptive evolution, we show that notothenioids experienced a punctuated burst of genomic diversification and evolved key skeletal modifications before the onset of polar conditions in the Southern Ocean. We show that diversifying selection in pathways associated with human skeletal dysplasias facilitates ecologically important variation in buoyancy among Antarctic notothenioid species, and demonstrate the sufficiency of altered trip11, col1a2 and col1a1 function in zebrafish (Danio rerio) to phenocopy skeletal reduction in Antarctic notothenioids. Rather than adaptation being driven by the cooling of the Antarctic (6), our results highlight the role of exaptation and historical contingency in shaping the adaptive radiation of notothenioids. Understanding the historical and environmental context for the origin of key traits in adaptive radiations provides context in forecasting the effects of climate change on the stability and evolvability of natural populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Daane, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dornburg, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smits, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MacGuigan, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hawkins, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Near, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Detrich, H. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-11-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/478842</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Historical contingency shapes adaptive radiation in Antarctic fishes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-11-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/479782v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Glycolytic inhibitor 2-deoxyglucose prevents cortical hyperexcitability after traumatic brain injury 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/479782v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes cortical dysfunction and can lead to post-traumatic epilepsy. Multiple studies demonstrate that GABAergic inhibitory network function is compromised following TBI, which may contribute to hyperexcitability and motor, behavioral, and cognitive deficits. Preserving the function of GABAergic interneurons, therefore, is a rational therapeutic strategy to preserve cortical function after TBI and prevent long-term clinical complications. Here, we explored an approach based on the ketogenic diet, a neuroprotective and anticonvulsant dietary therapy which results in reduced glycolysis and increased ketosis. Utilizing a pharmacologic inhibitor of glycolysis (2-deoxyglucose, or 2-DG), we found that acute in vitro glycolytic inhibition decreased the excitability of excitatory neurons, but not inhibitory interneurons, in cortical slices from naive mice. Employing the controlled cortical impact (CCI) model of TBI in mice, we found that in vitro 2-DG treatment rapidly attenuated epileptiform activity seen in acute cortical slices 3-5 weeks after TBI. One week of in vivo 2-DG treatment immediately after TBI prevented the development of epileptiform activity, restored excitatory and inhibitory synaptic activity, and attenuated loss of parvalbumin-positive inhibitory interneurons. In summary, inhibition of glycolysis with 2-DG may have therapeutic potential to restore network function following TBI.nnOne Sentence SummaryFollowing traumatic brain injury in mice, in vivo treatment with the glycolytic inhibitor 2-deoxyglucose prevented cortical network pathology including cortical hyperexcitability, changes in synaptic activity, and loss of parvalbumin-expressing GABAergic interneurons.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Koenig, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cantu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Low, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noubary, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Croker, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whalen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kong, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dulla, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-11-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/479782</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Glycolytic inhibitor 2-deoxyglucose prevents cortical hyperexcitability after traumatic brain injury]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-11-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/481507v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PTPN22 interacts with EB1 to regulate T cell receptor signaling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/481507v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PTPN22 has been reported as an important negative regulator of T cell signaling. Here we identified EB1 as an associated protein of PTPN22 via 2-hybrid and mass spectrometry screening.nnRecently the phosphorylation of EB1 has been proved in the regulation of T cell receptor (TCR) mediated signaling pathway. Our results shown that PTPN22 interacted with EB1 through the P1 domain of PTPN22, and regulated the Y247 phosphorylation site of EB1. The subsequent results suggest that PTPN22 interacts with EB1 and regulate the phosphorylation of EB1, which results in the regulation of the expression of T cell activation markers of CD25 and CD69, and the phosphorylation levels of the T cell signaling molecules, such as ZAP-70, LAT and Erk, ultimately resulting in NFAT transcription factors entering the nucleus and regulating the secretion of cytokine IL-2. This newly identified interaction between PTPN22 and EB1 may play an important role in TCR signal pathways.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bai, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-11-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/481507</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PTPN22 interacts with EB1 to regulate T cell receptor signaling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-11-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/488619v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In Vivo Flow Cytometry of Extremely Rare Circulating Cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/488619v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are of great interest in cancer research, but methods for their enumeration remain far from optimal. We developed a new small animal research tool called "Diffuse in vivo Flow Cytometry" (DiFC) for detecting extremely rare fluorescently-labeled circulating cells directly in the bloodstream. The technique exploits near-infrared diffuse photons to detect and count cells flowing in large superficial arteries and veins without drawing blood samples. DiFC uses custom-designed, dual fiber optic probes that are placed in contact with the skin surface approximately above a major vascular bundle. In combination with a novel signal processing, algorithm DiFC allows counting of individual cells moving in arterial or venous directions, as well as measurement of their speed and depth. We show that DiFC allows sampling of the entire circulating blood volume of a mouse in under 10 minutes, while maintaining a false alarm rate of 0.014 per minute. Hence, the unique capabilities of DiFC are highly suited to biological applications involving very rare cell types such as the study of hematogenic cancer metastasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tan, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patil, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartosik, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Runnels, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, C. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niedre, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/488619</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In Vivo Flow Cytometry of Extremely Rare Circulating Cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/493593v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evolution of connections and cell types: integrating diffusion MR tractography with gene expression data highlights increased cortico-cortical projections in primates 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/493593v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Diffusion MR tractography permits investigating the three-dimensional structure of cortical pathways as interwoven paths across the entire brain. We use high-resolution scans from diffusion spectrum imaging and high angular resolution diffusion imaging to investigate the evolution of cortical pathways within the euarchontoglire (i.e., primates, rodents) lineage. More specifically, we compare cortical fiber pathways between macaques (Macaca mulatta), marmosets (Callithrix jachus), and rodents (mice, Mus musculus). We integrate these observations with comparative analyses of Neurofilament heavy polypeptide (NEFH) expression across the cortex of mice and primates. We chose these species because their phylogenetic position serves to trace the early evolutionary history of the human brain. Our comparative analysis from diffusion MR tractography and NEFH expression demonstrates that the examined primates deviate from mice in possessing increased long-range cross-cortical projections, many of which course across the anterior to posterior axis of the cortex. Our study shows that integrating gene expression data with diffusion MR data is an effective approach in identifying variation in connectivity patterns between species. The expansion of cortico-cortical pathways and increased anterior to posterior cortical integration can be traced back to an extension of neurogenetic schedules during development in primates.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Charvet, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palani, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Priya Kabaria, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takahashi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/493593</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evolution of connections and cell types: integrating diffusion MR tractography with gene expression data highlights increased cortico-cortical projections in primates]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/499467v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The integrated stress response mediates type I interferon driven necrosis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis granulomas 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/499467v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Necrosis in the tuberculous granuloma is a hallmark of tuberculosis that enables pathogen survival and transmission. Susceptibility to tuberculosis and several other intracellular bacteria is controlled by a mouse genetic locus, sst1, and mice carrying the sst1-suscepible (sst1S) genotype develop necrotic inflammatory lung lesions, similar to human TB granulomas. Our previous work established that increased disease severity in sst1S mice reflects dysfunctional macrophage effector or tolerance mechanisms, but the molecular mechanisms have remained unclear. Here we demonstrate that sst1S macrophages develop aberrant, biphasic responses to TNF characterized by super-induction of stress and type I interferon pathways after prolonged TNF stimulation with this late-stage response being initiated by oxidative stress and Myc activation and driven via a JNK - IFN{beta} - PKR circuit. This circuit leads to induction of the integrated stress response (ISR) mediated by eIF2 phosphorylation and the subsequent hyper-induction of ATF3 and ISR-target genes Chac1, Trib3, Ddit4. The administration of ISRIB, a small molecule inhibitor of the ISR, blocked the development of necrosis in lung granulomas of M. tuberculosis-infected sst1S mice and concomitantly reduced the bacterial burden revealing that induction of the ISR and the locked-in state of escalating stress driven by type I IFN pathway in sst1S macrophages plays a causal role in the development of necrosis. Our data support a generalizable paradigm in intracellular pathogen-host interactions wherein host susceptibility emerges within inflammatory tissue due to imbalanced macrophage responses to growth, differentiation, activation and stress stimuli. Successful pathogens such as M. tuberculosis may exploit this aberrant response in susceptible hosts to induce necrotic lesions that favor long-term pathogen survival and transmission. Interruption of the aberrant stress response with inhibitors such as ISRIB may offer novel therapeutic strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bhattacharya, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chatterjee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Urbanowski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ordonez, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ihms, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agrahari, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lun, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berland, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pichugin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connor, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ivanov, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, B.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kobzik, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bishai, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kramnik, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/499467</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The integrated stress response mediates type I interferon driven necrosis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis granulomas]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/507988v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
On the Periodic Gain of the Ribosome Flow Model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/507988v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
1. Introduction 1. Introduction 2. Problem Formulation 3. Optimal Control and... 4. Optimality of the... References The Ribosome Flow Model (RFM) model is a deterministic model of translation with n sites [1, 2], It is a mean-field approximation of a standard model for translation elogation Totally Asymmetric Simple Exclusion Process (TASEP) [3, 4]. The model can be written as follows: [Formula 1](1)where x(t) is the occupancy vector x(t) = [x1(t); x2(t)), ..., xn(t))], and where all the{lambda} ...
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sadeghi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ali Al-Radhawi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Margaliot, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-12-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/507988</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[On the Periodic Gain of the Ribosome Flow Model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-12-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/510990v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rigid Foot Soles Improve Balance in Beam Walking 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/510990v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Maintaining balance while walking on a narrow beam is a challenging motor task. This is presumably because the foots ability to exert torque on the support surface is limited by the beam width. Still, the feet serve as a critical interface between the body and the external environment, and it is unclear how the mechanical properties of the feet affect balance. Here we examined how restricting the degrees of freedom of the feet influenced balance behavior during beam walking. We recorded whole-body joint kinematics of subjects with varying skill levels as they walked on a narrow beam with and without wearing flat, rigid soles on their feet. We computed changes in whole-body motion and angular momentum across these conditions. Results showed that wearing rigid soles improved balance in the beam walking task, but that practice with rigid soles did not affect or transfer to task performance with bare feet. The absence of any after-effect suggested that the improved balance from constraining the foot was the result of a mechanical effect rather than a change in neural strategy. Though wearing rigid soles can be used to assist balance, there appear to be limited training or rehabilitation benefits from wearing rigid soles.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huber, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiovetto, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giese, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sternad, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/510990</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rigid Foot Soles Improve Balance in Beam Walking]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/512152v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DO-MS: Data-Driven Optimization of Mass Spectrometry Methods 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/512152v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The performance of ultrasensitive LC-MS/MS methods, such as Single-Cell Proteomics by Mass Spectrometry (SCoPE-MS), depends on multiple interdependent parameters. This interdependence makes it challenging to specifically pinpoint bottlenecks in the LC-MS/MS methods and approaches for resolving them. For example, low signal at MS2 level can be due to poor LC separation, ionization, apex targeting, ion transfer, or ion detection. We sought to specifically diagnose such bottlenecks by interactively visualizing data from all levels of bottom-up LC-MS/MS analysis. Many search engines, such as MaxQuant, already provide such data, and we developed an open source platform for their interactive visualization and analysis: Data-driven Optimization of MS (DO-MS). We found that in many cases DO-MS not only specifically diagnosed bottlenecks but also enabled us to rationally optimize them. For example, we used DO-MS to diagnose poor sampling of the elution peak apex and to optimize it, which increased the efficiency of delivering ions for MS2 analysis by 370%. DO-MS is easy to install and use, and its GUI allows for interactive data subsetting and high-quality figure generation. The modular design of DO-MS facilitates customization and expansion. DO-MS is available for download from GitHub: github.com/SlavovLab/DO-MS
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huffman, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/512152</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DO-MS: Data-Driven Optimization of Mass Spectrometry Methods]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/514448v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dissecting the energetics of subunit rotation in the ribosome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/514448v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The accurate expression of proteins requires the ribosome to efficiently undergo elaborate conformational rearrangements. The most dramatic of these motions is subunit rotation, which is necessary for tRNA molecules to transition between ribosomal binding sites. While rigid-body descriptions provide a qualitative picture of the process, obtaining quantitative mechanistic insights requires one to account for the relationship between molecular flexibility and collective dynamics. Using simulated rotation events, we assess the quality of experimentally-accessible measures for describing the collective displacement of the ~ 4000-residue small subunit. For this, we ask whether each coordinate is able to identify the underlying free-energy barrier and transition state ensemble (TSE). We find that intuitive structurally-motivated coordinates (e.g. rotation angle, inter-protein distances) can distinguish between the endpoints, though they are poor indicators of barrier-crossing events, and they underestimate the free-energy barrier. In contrast, coordinates based on inter-subunit bridges can identify the TSE. We additionally verify that the committor probability for the putative TSE configurations is 0.5, a hallmark feature of any transition state. In terms of structural properties, these calculations implicate a transition state in which flexibility allows for asynchronous rearrangements of the bridges as the ribosome adopts a partially-rotated orientation. These calculations provide a theoretical foundation, upon which experimental techniques may precisely quantify the energy landscape of the ribosome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Levi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/514448</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dissecting the energetics of subunit rotation in the ribosome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/514547v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Transient Probability Distributions of Gene Regulatory Networks with Slow Promoter Kinetics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/514547v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
1. Introduction 1. Introduction 2. Transient Dynamics of... Example: The Self-Repressing... References In a previous work [1], we have shown that, under a suitable time-scale separation hypothesis, the stationary probability mass functions of gene regulatory networks can be written as mixtures of Poisson distribution.nnIn this work, we study the time-evolution of the probability mass function and show that it can be approximated via similar techniques.nnFirst, we review the relevant material from [1].nn1.1 The Reaction Network Structure In this paper, a GRN is formally defined as a set of nodes (genes) that are connected with each other through regulatory interactions via the proteins that the genes express. The regulatory proteins are called transcription factors(TFs). A ...
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ali Al-Radhawi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/514547</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Transient Probability Distributions of Gene Regulatory Networks with Slow Promoter Kinetics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/514679v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Shigella flexneri adherence factor expression in in vivo-like conditions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/514679v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Shigella species are Gram-negative, facultative intracellular pathogens that invade the colonic epithelium and cause significant diarrheal disease. Despite extensive research on the pathogen, comprehensive understanding of how Shigella initiates contact with epithelial cells remains unknown. Shigella maintains many of the same Escherichia coli adherence gene operons; however, at least one critical gene component in each operon is currently annotated as a pseudogene in reference genomes. These annotations, coupled with a lack of structures upon microscopic analysis following growth in laboratory media, have led the field to hypothesize that Shigella is unable to produce fimbriae or other "traditional" adherence factors. Nevertheless, our previous analyses have demonstrated that a combination of bile salts and glucose induce both biofilm formation and adherence to colonic epithelial cells. Through a two-part investigation, we first utilized various transcriptomic analyses to demonstrate that S. flexneri strain 2457T adherence gene operons are transcribed. Subsequently, we performed mutation, electron microscopy, biofilm, infection, and proteomic analyses to characterize three of the structural genes. In combination, these studies demonstrate that despite the gene annotations, S. flexneri 2457T uses adherence factors to initiate biofilm formation as well as epithelial cell contact. Furthermore, host factors, namely glucose and bile salts in the small intestine, offer key environmental stimuli required for proper adherence factor expression in S. flexneri. This research may have a significant impact on vaccine development for Shigella and further highlights the importance of utilizing in vivo-like conditions to study bacterial pathogenesis.nnImportanceBacterial pathogens have evolved to regulate virulence gene expression at critical points in the colonization and infection processes to successfully cause disease. The Shigella species infect the epithelial cells lining the colon to result in millions of cases of diarrhea and a significant global health burden. As antibiotic resistance rates increase, understanding the mechanisms of infection are vital to ensure successful vaccine development. Despite significant gains in our understanding of Shigella infection, it remains unknown how the bacteria initiate contact with the colonic epithelium. Most pathogens harbor multiple adherence factors to facilitate this process, but Shigella was thought to have lost the ability to produce these factors. Interestingly, we have identified conditions that mimic some features of gastrointestinal transit and enable Shigella to express adherence factors. This work highlights aspects of genetic regulation for Shigella adherence factors and may have a significant impact on future vaccine development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chanin, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nickerson, K. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Llanos-Chea, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sistrunk, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rasko, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vijaya Kumar, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De La Parra, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auclair, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dogiparthi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kusber, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Faherty, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/514679</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Shigella flexneri adherence factor expression in in vivo-like conditions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/516641v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In Vivo Monitoring of Rare Circulating Tumor Cell and Cluster Dissemination in a Multiple Myeloma Xenograft Model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/516641v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We recently developed  Diffuse in vivo Flow Cytometry (DiFC), a new pre-clinical research tool for enumerating extremely rare fluorescently-labeled circulating cells directly in vivo. In this paper, we developed a green fluorescent protein (GFP) compatible version of DiFC, and used it to non-invasively monitor the circulating tumor cell (CTC) burden over time in a multiple myeloma disseminated xenograft model. We show that DiFC allowed counting of CTCs at estimated concentrations below 1 cell per mL in peripheral blood with a negligible false alarm rate. DiFC also revealed the presence of CTC clusters in circulation to our knowledge for the first time in this model, and allowed us to calculate their size, kinetics, and frequency of shedding. We anticipate that the unique capabilities of DiFC will have many applications in the study of hematogenous metastasis, and as a powerful complementary methodology to liquid biopsy assays.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Patil, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tan, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartosik, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Detappe, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Runnels, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghobrial, I. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, C. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niedre, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/516641</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In Vivo Monitoring of Rare Circulating Tumor Cell and Cluster Dissemination in a Multiple Myeloma Xenograft Model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/525279v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In vitro implementation of robust gene regulation in a synthetic biomolecular integral controller 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/525279v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Feedback mechanisms play a critical role in the maintenance of cell homeostasis in the presence of disturbances and uncertainties. Motivated by the need to tune the dynamics and improve the robustness of synthetic gene circuits, biological engineers have proposed various designs that mimic natural molecular feedback control mechanisms. However, practical and predictable implementations have proved challenging because of the complexity of synthesis and analysis of complex biomolecular networks. Here, we analyze and experimentally validate a first synthetic biomolecular controller executed in vitro. The controller is based on the interaction between a sigma and an anti-sigma factor, which ensures that gene expression tracks an externally imposed reference level, and achieves this goal even in the presence of disturbances. Our design relies upon an analog of the well-known principle of integral feedback in control theory. We implement the controller in an Escherichia coli cell-free transcription-translation (TXTL) system, a platform that allows rapid prototyping and implementation. Modeling and theory guide experimental implementation of the controller with well-defined operational predictability.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Agrawal, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marshall, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noireaux, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/525279</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In vitro implementation of robust gene regulation in a synthetic biomolecular integral controller]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/535385v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Perfect adaptation of CD8+ T cell responses to constant antigen input over a wide range of affinity is overcome by costimulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/535385v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Maintaining and limiting T cell responses to constant antigen stimulation is critical to control pathogens and maintain self-tolerance, respectively. Antigen recognition by T cell receptors (TCRs) induces signalling that activates T cells to produce cytokines and also leads to the downregulation of surface TCRs. In other systems, receptor downregulation can induce perfect adaptation to constant stimulation by a mechanism known as state-dependent inactivation that requires complete downregulation of the receptor or the ligand. However, this is not the case for the TCR, and therefore, precisely how TCR downregulation maintains or limits T cell responses is controversial. Here, we observed that in vitro expanded primary human T cells exhibit perfect adaptation in cytokine production to constant antigen stimulation across a 100,000-fold variation in affinity with partial TCR downregulation. By directly fitting a mechanistic model to the data, we show that TCR downregulation produces imperfect adaptation, but when coupled to a switch produces perfect adaptation in cytokine production. A pre-diction of the model is that pMHC-induced TCR signalling continues after adaptation and this is confirmed by showing that, while costimulation cannot prevent adaptation, CD28 and 4-1BB signalling reactivated adapted T cells to produce cytokines in a pMHC-dependent manner. We show that adaptation also applied to 1st generation chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells but is partially avoided in 2nd generation CARs. These findings high-light that even partial TCR downregulation can limit T cell responses by producing perfect adaptation rendering T cells dependent on costimulation for sustained responses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Trendel, N. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kruger, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaglione, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dushek, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/535385</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Perfect adaptation of CD8+ T cell responses to constant antigen input over a wide range of affinity is overcome by costimulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/550657v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ordered Hexagonal Patterns via Notch-Delta Signaling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/550657v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Many developmental processes in biology utilize Notch-Delta signaling to construct an ordered pattern of cellular differentiation. This signaling modality is based on nearest-neighbor contact, as opposed to the more familiar mechanism driven by the release of diffusible ligands. Here, we show that this "juxtracrine" property allows for an exact treatment of the pattern formation problem via a system of nine coupled ordinary differential equations. Furthermore, we show that the possible patterns that are realized can be analyzed by considering a co-dimension 2 pitchfork bifurcation of this system. This analysis explains the observed prevalence of hexagonal patterns with high Delta at their center, as opposed to those with central high Notch levels. Also, our theory suggests a simple strategy for producing defect-free patterns.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kessler, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teomy, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-02-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/550657</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ordered Hexagonal Patterns via Notch-Delta Signaling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-02-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/561589v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The high persister phenotype of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is associated with increased fitness and persistence in cystic fibrosis airways 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/561589v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite intensive antibiotic treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, Pseudomonas aeruginosa often persists in patient airways for decades, and can do so without the development of antibiotic resistance. Using a high-throughput screening assay of survival after treatment with high concentrations of ciprofloxacin, we have determined the prevalence of high-persister variants (Hip) in a large patient cohort. In a screen of 467 longitudinal clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa from 40 CF patients, we classified 25.7% as Hip. Hip were identified in 26 patients, but only a few bacterial lineages were dominated by Hip. Instead, the emergence of Hip increased over time, suggesting that CF airways treated with ciprofloxacin select for Hip with an increased fitness in this environment. We generally observed diverse genetic changes in the Hip isolate population (as many co-occurring routes to increased fitness exist), but interestingly elevated mutation counts in the RpoN gene of 18 Hip isolates suggest that this sigma factor plays a role in shaping levels of antibiotic tolerance. To probe the impact of the Hip phenotype in a CF-similar environment, we tested the fitness properties of otherwise genotypically and phenotypically similar low-persister (Lop) and Hip isolates in co-culture using a specialized flow-cell biofilm system mimicking pharmacokinetic/-dynamic antibiotic dosing. Hip survived ciprofloxacin treatment far better than Lop isolates. The results of this investigation provide novel insights into persister dynamics and fitness contributions to survival in the CF lung, and show that the Hip phenotype of antibiotic susceptible bacteria plays an important role in long-term infections.

SignificanceAntibiotic resistance is emphasized as a rapidly increasing health threat, but antibiotic tolerance via the occurrence of persister cells in antibiotic-treated bacterial populations is clinically and publicly neglected. In 40 CF patients representing a well-established human infection model - long-term lung infections by Pseudomonas aeruginosa - we show the emergence and accumulation of persister variants in a clinical population heavily reliant on antibiotic therapy. We observe that the high-persister (Hip) phenotype is independent of resistance and likely the consequence of numerous genetic alterations, complicating surveillance and inhibition in the clinic. Furthermore, we find Hip are selected for over time, survive better than  normal bacteria, and can outcompete them in CF-similar conditions, ultimately affecting 65% of patients in an early disease cohort.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mojsoska, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartell, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haagensen, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sommer, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Molin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johansen, H. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-02-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/561589</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The high persister phenotype of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is associated with increased fitness and persistence in cystic fibrosis airways]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-02-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/564526v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Decreasing Serine Levels During Growth Transition Triggers Biofilm Formation in Bacillus subtilis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/564526v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Biofilm development in Bacillus subtilis is regulated at multiple levels. While a number of known signals that trigger biofilm formation do so through the activation of one or more sensory histidine kinases, it was recently discovered that biofilm activation is also coordinated by sensing intracellular metabolic signals, including serine starvation. Serine starvation causes ribosomes to pause on specific serine codons, leading to a decrease in the translation rate of sinR, which encodes a master repressor for biofilm matrix genes, and ultimately biofilm induction. How serine levels change in different growth stages, how B. subtilis regulates intracellular serine levels in response to metabolic status, and how serine starvation triggers ribosomes to pause on selective serine codons remain unknown. Here we show that serine levels decrease as cells enter stationary phase and that unlike most other amino acid biosynthesis genes, expression of serine biosynthesis genes decreases upon the transition into stationary phase. Deletion of the gene for a serine deaminase responsible for converting serine to pyruvate led to a delay in biofilm formation, further supporting the idea that serine levels are a critical intracellular signal for biofilm activation. Finally, we show that levels of all five serine tRNA isoacceptors are decreased in stationary phase compared to exponential phase. Interestingly, the three isoacceptors recognizing UCN serine codons are reduced to a much greater extent than the two that recognize AGC and AGU serine codons. Our findings provide evidence for a link between serine homeostasis and biofilm development in B. subtilis.

IMPORTANCEIn Bacillus subtilis, biofilm formation is triggered in response to various environmental and cellular signals. It was previously proposed that serine limitation acts as a proxy for nutrient status and triggers biofilm formation at the onset of biofilm entry through a novel signaling mechanism caused by global ribosome pausing on selective serine codons. In this study, we revealed that serine levels decrease at the biofilm entry due to catabolite control and a shunt mechanism. We also show that levels of five serine tRNA isoacceptors are differentially decreased in stationary phase compared to exponential phase; three isoacceptors recognizing UCN serine codons are reduced much greater than the two recognizing AGC and AGU codons. This indicates a possible mechanism for selective ribosome pausing.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Greenwich, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reverdy, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gozzi, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Cecco, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tashjian, T. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godoy-Carter, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/564526</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Decreasing Serine Levels During Growth Transition Triggers Biofilm Formation in Bacillus subtilis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/576967v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High angular resolution diffusion MRI reveals conserved and deviant programs in the paths that guide human cortical circuitry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/576967v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Diffusion MR tractography represents a novel opportunity to investigate conserved and deviant developmental programs between humans and other species such as mice. To that end, we acquired high angular resolution diffusion MR scans of mice (embryonic day [E] 10.5 to post-natal week [PW] 4) and human brains (gestational week [GW] 17 to 30) at successive stages of fetal development to investigate potential evolutionary changes in radial organization and emerging pathways between humans and mice. We compare radial glial development as well as commissural development (e.g., corpus callosum), primarily because our findings can be integrated with previous work. We also compare corpus callosal growth trajectories across primates (i.e., humans, rhesus macaques) and rodents (i.e., mice). One major finding is that the developing cortex of humans is predominated by pathways likely associated with a radial glial organization at GW 17-20, which is not as evident in age-matched mice (E 16.5, 17.5). Another finding is that, early in development, the corpus callosum follows a similar developmental timetable in primates (i.e., macaques, humans) as in mice. However, the corpus callosum grows for an extended period of time in primates compared with rodents. Taken together, these findings highlight deviant developmental programs underlying the emergence of cortical pathways in the human brain.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Charvet, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Das, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tindall-Burgess, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kabaria, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kane, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takahashi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/576967</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High angular resolution diffusion MRI reveals conserved and deviant programs in the paths that guide human cortical circuitry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/583922v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Biologically inspired model of associative memory storage with noisy neurons and synapses 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/583922v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neural networks in the brain can function reliably despite various sources of errors and noise present at every step of signal transmission. These sources include errors in the presynaptic inputs to the neurons, noise in synaptic transmission, and fluctuations in the neurons postsynaptic potentials. Collectively they lead to errors in the neurons outputs which are, in turn, injected into the network. Does unreliable network activity hinder fundamental functions of the brain, such as learning and memory retrieval? To explore this question, this article examines the effects of errors and noise on properties of biologically constrained networks of inhibitory and excitatory neurons involved in associative sequence learning. The associative learning problem is solved analytically and numerically, and it is also shown how memory sequences can be loaded into the network with a more biologically plausible perceptron-type learning rule. Interestingly, the results reveal that errors and noise during learning increase the probability of memory recall. There is a tradeoff between the capacity and reliability of stored memories, and, noise during learning is required for optimal retrieval of stored information. What is more, networks loaded with associative memories to capacity display many structural and dynamical features observed in local cortical circuits. Due to the similarities between the associative and brain networks, this article predicts that the connections originating from unreliable inhibitory and excitatory neurons or neuron classes in the cortex must be depressed or eliminated during learning, while the connections onto noisy neurons or neuron classes must have lower probabilities and higher weights.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stepanyants, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/583922</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Biologically inspired model of associative memory storage with noisy neurons and synapses]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/589168v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mitochondrial mutational spectrum provides an universal marker of cellular and organismal longevity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/589168v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutational spectrum of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) does not resemble signatures of any known mutagens and variation in mtDNA mutational spectra between different tissues and organisms is still incomprehensible. Since mitochondria is tightly involved in aerobic energy production, it is expected that mtDNA mutational spectra may be affected by the oxidative damage which is increasing with cellular and organismal aging. However, the well-documented mutational signature of the oxidative damage, G>T substitutions, is typical only for the nuclear genome while it is extremely rare and age-independent in mtDNA. Thus it is still unclear if there is a mitochondria - specific mutational signature of the oxidative damage. Here, reconstructing mtDNA mutational spectra for human cancers originated from 21 tissues with various cell turnover rate, human oocytes fertilized at different ages, and 424 mammalian species with variable generation length which is a proxy for oocyte age, we observed that the frequency of AH>GH substitutions (H - heavy chain notation) is positively correlated with cellular and organismal longevity. Moreover, this mutational bias from AH to GH affects nucleotide content at the fourfold degenerative synonymous positions leading to a deficit of AH and excess of GH, which is especially pronounced in long-lived mammals. Taking into account additionally, that AH>GH is sensitive to time being single stranded during mtDNA asynchronous replication and A>G is associated with oxidative damage of single-stranded DNA in recent bacterial experiments we propose that AH>GH is a mutational signature of oxidative damage in mtDNA.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mikhaylova, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mikhailova, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ushakova, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tretyakov, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iurchenko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zazhytska, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knorre, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zdobnov, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleischmann, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Annis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wasko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunz, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazunin, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nikolaev, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reymond, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunbin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/589168</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mitochondrial mutational spectrum provides an universal marker of cellular and organismal longevity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/589390v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ethanolamine regulates CqsR quorum-sensing signaling in Vibrio cholerae 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/589390v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The pathogen that causes cholera, Vibrio cholerae, uses the cell-cell communication process known as quorum sensing (QS) to regulate virulence factor production and biofilm formation in response to changes in population density and complexity. QS is mediated through the detection of extracellular chemical signals called autoinducers. Four histidine kinases, LuxPQ, CqsS, CqsR and VpsS, have been identified as receptors to activate the key QS regulator LuxO at low cell density. At high cell density, detection of autoinducers by these receptors leads to deactivation of LuxO, resulting in population-wide gene expression changes. While the cognate autoinducers that regulate the activity of CqsS and LuxQ are known, the signals that regulate CqsR have not been determined. Here we show that the common metabolite ethanolamine specifically interacts with the ligand-binding CACHE domain of CqsR in vitro and induces the high cell-density QS response through CqsR kinase inhibition in V. cholerae cells. We also identified residues in the CqsR CACHE domain important for ethanolamine detection and signal transduction. Moreover, mutations disrupting endogenous ethanolamine production in V. cholerae delay the onset of, but do not abolish, the high cell-density QS gene expression. Finally, we demonstrate that modulation of CqsR QS response by ethanolamine occurs inside animal hosts. Our findings suggest that V. cholerae uses CqsR as a dual-function receptor to integrate information from the self-made signals as well as exogenous ethanolamine as an environmental cue to modulate QS response.nnIMPORTANCEMany bacteria use quorum sensing to regulate cellular processes that are important for their survival and adaptation to different environments. Quorum sensing usually depends on the detection on chemical signals called autoinducers made endogenously by the bacteria. We show here ethanolamine, a common metabolite made by various bacteria and eukaryotes, can modulate the activity of one of the quorum-sensing receptors in Vibrio cholerae, the etiological agent of the disease cholera. Our results raise the possibility that V. cholerae or other quorum-sensing bacteria can combine environmental sensing and quorum sensing to control group behaviors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ng, W.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watve, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrasso, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jung, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hawver, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khataokar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Palaganas, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neiditch, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perez, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/589390</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ethanolamine regulates CqsR quorum-sensing signaling in Vibrio cholerae]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/589937v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Near-optimal combination of disparity across a log-polar scaled visual field 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/589937v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The human visual system is foveated: we can see fine spatial details in central vision, whereas resolution is poor in our peripheral visual field, and this loss of resolution follows an approximately logarithmic decrease. Additionally, our brain organizes visual input in polar coordinates. Therefore, the image projection occurring between retina and primary visual cortex can be mathematically described by the log-polar transform. Here, we test and model how this space-variant visual processing affects how we process binocular disparity, a key component of human depth perception. We observe that the fovea preferentially processes disparities at fine spatial scales, whereas the visual periphery is tuned for coarse spatial scales, in line with the naturally occurring distributions of depths and disparities in the real-world. We further show that the visual field integrates disparity information across the visual field, in a near-optimal fashion. We develop a foveated, log-polar model that mimics the processing of depth information in primary visual cortex and that can process disparity directly in the cortical domain representation. This model takes real images as input and recreates the observed topography of disparity sensitivity in man. Our findings support the notion that our foveated, binocular visual system has been moulded by the statistics of our visual environment.nnAuthor summaryWe investigate how humans perceive depth from binocular disparity at different spatial scales and across different regions of the visual field. We show that small changes in disparity-defined depth are detected best in central vision, whereas peripheral vision best captures the coarser structure of the environment. We also demonstrate that depth information extracted from different regions of the visual field is combined into a unified depth percept. We then construct an image-computable model of disparity processing that takes into account how our brain organizes the visual input at our retinae. The model operates directly in cortical image space, and neatly accounts for human depth perception across the visual field.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maiello, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chessa, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Solari, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/589937</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Near-optimal combination of disparity across a log-polar scaled visual field]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/592691v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Mechanism for Epithelial-Mesenchymal Heterogeneity in a Population of Cancer Cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/592691v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epithelial-mesenchymal heterogeneity, wherein cells within the same tumor can exhibit an epithelial, a mesenchymal, or one or more hybrid epithelial-mesenchymal phenotype(s), has been observed across cancer types and implicated in metastatic aggressiveness. Here, we have used computational modeling to show that this heterogeneity can emerge from the noise in the partitioning of RNAs and proteins among the daughter cells during cancer cell division. Our model captures the population-level behavior of murine prostate cancer cells, the hysteresis in the dynamics of epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity, and how hybrid phenotype-promoting factors alter the phenotypic composition of a population. We further used the model to describe the implications of heterogeneity for therapeutics. By linking the dynamics of an intracellular regulatory circuit to the phenotypic composition of a population, the study contributes towards understanding how non-genetic heterogeneity can be generated and propagated from a small, homogeneous population, and towards therapeutic targeting of cancer cell heterogeneity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tripathi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/592691</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Mechanism for Epithelial-Mesenchymal Heterogeneity in a Population of Cancer Cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/596692v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Oligotyping and Genome-Resolved Metagenomics Reveal Distinct Candidatus Accumulibacter Communities in Full-Scale Side-Stream versus Conventional Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) Configurations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/596692v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Candidatus Accumulibacter phosphatis (CAP) and its sub-clades-level diversity has been associated and implicated in successful phosphorus removal performance in enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR). Development of high-throughput untargeted methods to characterize clades of CAP in EBPR communities can enable a better understanding of Accumulibacter ecology at a higher-resolution beyond OTU-level in wastewater resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). In this study, for the first time, using integrated 16S rRNA gene sequencing, oligotyping and genome-resolved metagenomics, we were able to reveal clade-level differences in Accumulibacter communities and associate the differences with two different full-scale EBPR configurations. The results led to the identification and characterization of a distinct and dominant Accumulibacter oligotype - Oligotype 2 (belonging to Clade IIC) and its matching MAG (RC14) associated with side-stream EBPR configuration. We are also able to extract MAGs belonging to CAP clades IIB (RCAB4-2) and II (RC18) which did not have representative genomes before. This study demonstrates and validates the use of a high-throughput approach of oligotyping analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences to elucidate CAP clade-level diversity. We also show the existence of a previously uncharacterized diversity of CAP clades in full-scale EBPR communities through extraction of MAGs, for the first time from full-scale facilities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Srinivasan, V. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tooker, N. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onnis-Hayden, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, A. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/596692</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Oligotyping and Genome-Resolved Metagenomics Reveal Distinct Candidatus Accumulibacter Communities in Full-Scale Side-Stream versus Conventional Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) Configurations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/602102v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Prospects for transcranial temporal interference stimulation in humans: a computational study 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/602102v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a noninvasive method used to modulate activity of superficial brain regions. Deeper and more steerable stimulation could potentially be achieved using transcranial temporal interference stimulation (tTIS): two high-frequency alternating fields interact to produce a wave with an envelope frequency in the range thought to modulate neural activity. Promising initial results have been reported for experiments with mice. In this study we aim to better understand the electric fields produced with tTIS and examine its prospects in humans through simulations with murine and human head models. A murine head finite element model was used to simulate previously published experiments of tTIS in mice. With a total current of 0.776 mA, tTIS electric field strengths up to 383 V/m were reached in the modeled mouse brain, affirming experimental results indicating that suprathreshold stimulation is possible in mice. Using a detailed anisotropic human head model, tTIS was simulated with systematically varied electrode configurations and input currents to investigate how these parameters influence the electric fields. An exhaustive search with 88 electrode locations covering the entire head (146M current patterns) was employed to optimize tTIS for target field strength and focality. In all analyses, we investigated maximal effects and effects along the predominant orientation of local neurons. Our results showed that it was possible to steer the peak tTIS field by manipulating the relative strength of the two input fields. Deep brain areas received field strengths similar to conventional tACS, but with less stimulation in superficial areas. Maximum field strengths in the human model were much lower than in the murine model, too low to expect direct stimulation effects. While field strengths from tACS were slightly higher, our results suggest that tTIS is capable of producing more focal fields and allows for better steerability. Finally, we present optimal four-electrode current patterns to maximize tTIS in regions of the pallidum (0.37 V/m), hippocampus (0.24 V/m) and motor cortex (0.57 V/m).
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rampersad, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roig-Solvas, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yarossi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulkarni, P. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santarnecchi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dorval, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brooks, D. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/602102</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Prospects for transcranial temporal interference stimulation in humans: a computational study]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/603282v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Deleterious in late life mitochondrial alleles and aging: secrets of Japanese centenarians 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/603282v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Aging in postmitotic tissues is associated with clonal expansion of somatic mitochondrial deletions, the origin of which is not well understood. Deletions in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are often flanked by direct nucleotide repeats, but this alone does not fully explain their distribution. Here, we hypothesized that the close proximity of direct repeats on single-stranded DNA might play a role in the formation of deletions. By analyzing human mtDNA deletions in the major arc of mtDNA, which is single-stranded during replication and is characterized by a high number of deletions, we found a non-uniform distribution with a "hot spot" where one deletion breakpoint occurred within the region of 6-9kb and another within 13-16kb of the mtDNA. This distribution was not explained by the presence of direct repeats, suggesting that other factors, such as the spatial proximity of these two regions can be the cause. In silico analyses revealed that the single-stranded major arc may be organized as a large-scale hairpin-like loop with a center close to 11kb and contacting regions between 6-9 kb and 13-16 kb, which would explain the high deletion activity in this contact zone. The direct repeats located within the contact zone, such as the well-known common repeat with a first arm at 8470-8482 bp and a second arm at 13447-13459 bp, are three times more likely to cause deletions compared to direct repeats located outside of the contact zone. An analysis of age- and disease-associated deletions demonstrated that the contact zone plays a crucial role in explaining the age-associated deletions, emphasizing its importance in the rate of healthy aging. Overall, we provide topological insights into the mechanism of age-associated deletion formation in human mtDNA, which could be used to predict somatic deletion burden and maximum lifespan in different human haplogroups and mammalian species.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mikhailova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shamansky, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bazykin, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazunin, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunbin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunz, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reymond, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tanaka, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/603282</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Deleterious in late life mitochondrial alleles and aging: secrets of Japanese centenarians]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/605451v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A reference map of the human protein interactome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/605451v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Global insights into cellular organization and function require comprehensive understanding of interactome networks. Similar to how a reference genome sequence revolutionized human genetics, a reference map of the human interactome network is critical to fully understand genotype-phenotype relationships. Here we present the first human "all-by-all" binary reference interactome map, or "HuRI". With ~53,000 high-quality protein-protein interactions (PPIs), HuRI is approximately four times larger than the information curated from small-scale studies available in the literature. Integrating HuRI with genome, transcriptome and proteome data enables the study of cellular function within essentially any physiological or pathological cellular context. We demonstrate the use of HuRI in identifying specific subcellular roles of PPIs and protein function modulation via splicing during brain development. Inferred tissue-specific networks reveal general principles for the formation of cellular context-specific functions and elucidate potential molecular mechanisms underlying tissue-specific phenotypes of Mendelian diseases. HuRI thus represents an unprecedented, systematic reference linking genomic variation to phenotypic outcomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Luck, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lambourne, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spirohn, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Begg, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bian, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brignall, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cafarelli, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Campos-Laborie, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Charloteaux, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cote, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daley, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deimling, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desbuleux, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dricot, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gebbia, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hardy, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kishore, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knapp, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kovacs, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lemmens, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mee, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mellor, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pollis, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pons, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richardson, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schlabach, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teeking, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yadav, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Babor, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balcha, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basha, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chin, S.-F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colabella, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coppin, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>D'Amata, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Ridder, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Rouck, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duran-Frigola, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ennajdaoui, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goebels, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gopal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haddad</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/605451</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A reference map of the human protein interactome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/607119v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Google searches accurately forecast RSV hospitalizations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/607119v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundHospitalization of children with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is common and costly. Traditional sources of hospitalization data, useful for public health decision-makers and physicians to make decisions, are themselves costly to acquire and are subject to delays from gathering to publication. Here we use Google searches for RSV as a proxy for RSV hospitalizations.nnMethodsSearches for "RSV" and numbers of RSV hospitalizations in WA, MD, FL, and CT were examined from 2004-2018. Running correlation coefficients and phase angles between search and hospitalizations were calculated. Various machine learning models were compared to assess the ability of searches to forecast hospitalizations. Using search data from all 50 US states, we use K-means clustering to identify RSV transmission clusters. We calculate the timing of the optimal timing of RSV prophylaxis initiation as the week beginning the 24-week period covering 95% of all RSV cases.nnResultsHigh correlations (> 0.95) and low phase differences were seen between counts of hospitalizations and search volume in WA, MD, FL, and CT. Searching for RSV began in FL and radiated outward and three distinct transmission clusters were identified: the south and northeast, the northwest and Appalachia, and the center of the country. Calculated initiation dates for prophylaxis closely followed those calculated using traditional data sources (correlation = 0.84).nnConclusionsThis work validates searches as a proxy for RSV hospitalizations. Search query surveillance of RSV is a rapid and no-cost addition to traditional RSV hospitalization surveillance and may be useful for medical and public health decision-making.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Althouse, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weinberger, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scarpino, S. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pitzer, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayers, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wenger, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fung, I. C.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dredze, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/607119</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Google searches accurately forecast RSV hospitalizations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/608059v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pericytes enable effective angiogenesis in the presence of pro inflammatory signals 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/608059v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Angiogenesis frequently occurs in the context of acute or persistent inflammation. The complex interplay of pro-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic cues is only partially understood. Using a new experimental model permitting exposure of developing blood vessel sprouts to multiple combinations of diverse biochemical stimuli and juxtacrine cell interactions, we present evidence that a pro-inflammatory cytokine, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), can have both pro- and anti-angiogenic effects, depending on the dose and the presence of pericytes. In particular, we find that pericytes can rescue and enhance angiogenesis in the presence of otherwise inhibitory high TNF doses. This sharp switch from pro- to anti-angiogenic effect of TNF observed with an escalating dose of this cytokine, as well as the effect of pericytes are explained by a mathematical model trained on the biochemical data. Furthermore, this model was predictive of the effects of diverse combinations of pro-and anti-inflammatory cues, and variable pericyte coverage. The mechanism supports the effect of TNF and pericytes as modulating signaling networks impinging in Notch signaling and specification of the Tip and Stalk phenotypes. This integrative analysis elucidates the plasticity of the angiogenic morphogenesis in the presence of diverse and potentially conflicting cues, with immediate implications for many physiological and pathological settings.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kang, T.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bocci, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levchenko, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/608059</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pericytes enable effective angiogenesis in the presence of pro inflammatory signals]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/608620v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Functional Territories of Human Dentate Nucleus 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/608620v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Anatomical connections link the cerebellar cortex with multiple distinct sensory, motor, association, and paralimbic areas of the cerebrum. These projections allow a topographically precise cerebellar modulation of multiple domains of neurological function, and underscore the relevance of the cerebellum for the pathophysiology of numerous disorders in neurology and psychiatry. The majority of fibers that exit the cerebellar cortex synapse in the dentate nuclei (DN) before reaching extracerebellar structures such as cerebral cortex. Although the DN have a central position in the anatomy of the cerebello-cerebral circuits, the functional neuroanatomy of human DN remains largely unmapped. Neuroimaging research has redefined broad categories of functional division in the human brain showing that primary processing, attentional (task positive) processing, and default-mode (task negative) processing are three central poles of neural macro-scale functional organization. This new macro-scale understanding of the range and poles of brain function has revealed that a broad spectrum of human neural processing categories (primary, task positive, task negative) is represented not only in the cerebral cortex, but also in the thalamus, striatum, and cerebellar cortex. Whether functional organization in DN obeys a similar set of macroscale divisions, and whether DN are yet another compartment of representation of a broad spectrum of human neural processing categories, remains unknown. Here we show for the first time that human DN is optimally divided into three functional territories as indexed by high spatio-temporal resolution resting-state MRI in 60 healthy adolescents, and that these three distinct territories contribute uniquely to default-mode, salience-motor, and visual brain networks. These conclusions are supported by novel analytical strategies in human studies of DN organization, including 64-channel MRI imaging, data-driven methods, and replication in an independent sample. Our findings provide a systems neuroscience substrate for cerebellar output to influence multiple broad categories of neural control - namely default- mode, attentional, and multiple unimodal streams of information processing including motor and visual. They also provide a validated data-driven mapping of functions in human DN, crucial for the design of methodology and interpretation of results in future neuroimaging studies of brain function and dysfunction.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Guell, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>D'Mello, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hubbard, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romeo, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabrieli, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmahmann, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arnold Anteraper, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/608620</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Functional Territories of Human Dentate Nucleus]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/611236v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ifit1 regulates norovirus infection and enhances the interferon response in murine macrophage-like cells. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/611236v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundNorovirus, also known as the winter vomiting bug, is the predominant cause of non-bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. Disease control is predicated on a robust innate immune response during the early stages of infection. Double-stranded RNA intermediates generated during viral genome replication are recognised by host innate immune sensors in the cytoplasm, activating the strongly antiviral interferon gene programme. Ifit proteins, which are highly expressed during the interferon response, have been shown to directly inhibit viral protein synthesis as well as regulate innate immune signalling pathways. Ifit1 is well-characterised to inhibit viral translation by sequestration of eukaryotic initiation factors or by directly binding to the 5 terminus of foreign RNA, particularly those with non-self cap structures. However, noroviruses have a viral protein, VPg, covalently linked to the 5 end of the genomic RNA, which acts as a cap substitute to recruit the translation initiation machinery.nnMethodsIfit1 knockout RAW264.7 murine macrophage-like cells were generated using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. These cells were analysed for their ability to support murine norovirus infection, determined by virus yield, and respond to different immune stimuli, assayed by quantitative PCR. The effect of Ifit proteins on norovirus translation was also tested in vitro.nnResultsHere, we show that VPg-dependent translation is completely refractory Ifit1-mediated translation inhibition in vitro and Ifit1 cannot bind the 5 end of VPg-linked RNA. Nevertheless, knockout of Ifit1 promoted viral replication in murine norovirus infected cells. We then demonstrate that Ifit1 promoted interferon-beta expression following transfection of synthetic double-stranded RNA but had little effect on toll-like receptor 3 and 4 signalling.nnConclusionsIfit1 is an antiviral factor during norovirus infection but cannot directly inhibit viral translation. Instead, Ifit1 stimulates the antiviral state following cytoplasmic RNA sensing, contributing to restriction of norovirus replication.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mears, H. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emmott, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chaudhry, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hosmillo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodfellow, I. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sweeney, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-04-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/611236</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ifit1 regulates norovirus infection and enhances the interferon response in murine macrophage-like cells.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-04-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/653105v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The CAFA challenge reports improved protein function prediction and new functional annotations for hundreds of genes through experimental screens 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/653105v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Critical Assessment of Functional Annotation (CAFA) is an ongoing, global, community-driven effort to evaluate and improve the computational annotation of protein function. Here we report on the results of the third CAFA challenge, CAFA3, that featured an expanded analysis over the previous CAFA rounds, both in terms of volume of data analyzed and the types of analysis performed. In a novel and major new development, computational predictions and assessment goals drove some of the experimental assays, resulting in new functional annotations for more than 1000 genes. Specifically, we performed experimental whole-genome mutation screening in Candida albicans and Pseudomonas aureginosa genomes, which provided us with genome-wide experimental data for genes associated with biofilm formation and motility (P. aureginosa only). We further performed targeted assays on selected genes in Drosophila melanogaster, which we suspected of being involved in long-term memory. We conclude that, while predictions of the molecular function and biological process annotations have slightly improved over time, those of the cellular component have not. Term-centric prediction of experimental annotations remains equally challenging; although the performance of the top methods is significantly better than expectations set by baseline methods in C. albicans and D. melanogaster, it leaves considerable room and need for improvement. We finally report that the CAFA community now involves a broad range of participants with expertise in bioinformatics, biological experimentation, biocuration, and bioontologies, working together to improve functional annotation, computational function prediction, and our ability to manage big data in the era of large experimental screens.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhou, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bergquist, T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kacsoh, B. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crocker, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Georghiou, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, H. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamid, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>The Critical Assessment of Function Annotation,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rost, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenner, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Orengo, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jeffery, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bosco, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hogan, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Donovan, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mooney, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greene, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friedberg, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-05-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/653105</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The CAFA challenge reports improved protein function prediction and new functional annotations for hundreds of genes through experimental screens]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-05-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/655316v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Microbial Nitrogen Metabolism in Chloraminated Drinking Water Reservoirs 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/655316v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Nitrification is a common concern in chloraminated drinking water distribution systems. The addition of ammonia promotes the growth of nitrifying organisms, causing the depletion of chloramine residuals and resulting in operational problems for many drinking water utilities. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the microbially mediated processes behind nitrogen metabolism together with chemical water quality data, may allow water utilities to better address the undesirable effects caused by nitrification. In this study, a metagenomic approach was applied to characterise the microbial nitrogen metabolism within chloraminated drinking water reservoirs. Samples from two geographically separated but connected chloraminated reservoirs within the same drinking water distribution system (DWDS) were collected within a 2-year sampling campaign. Spatial changes in the nitrogen compounds (ammonium (NH4+), nitrites (NO2-) and nitrates (NO3-)) across the DWDS were observed, where nitrate concentrations increased as the distance from the site of chloramination increased. The observed dominance of Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira-like bacteria, together with the changes in the concentration of nitrogen species, suggests that these bacteria play a significant role in contributing to varying stages of nitrification in both reservoirs. Functionally annotated protein sequences were mined for the genes associated with nitrogen metabolism and the community gene catalogue contained mostly genes involved in nitrification, nitrate and nitrite reduction and nitric oxide reduction. Furthermore, based on the construction of Metagenome Assembled Genomes (MAGs), a highly diverse assemblage of bacteria (i.e., predominately Alpha- and Betaproteobacteria in this study) was observed among the draft genomes. Specifically, 5 MAGs showed high coverage across all samples including two Nitrosomonas, Nitrospira, Sphingomonas and a Rhizobiales-like MAGs. The role of these MAGs in nitrogen metabolism revealed that the fate nitrate may be linked to changes in ammonia concentrations, that is, when ammonia concentrations are low, nitrate may be assimilated back to ammonia for growth. Alternatively, nitrate may be reduced to nitric oxide and potentially used in the regulation of biofilm formation. Therefore, this study provides insight into the genetic network behind microbially mediated nitrogen metabolism and together with the water chemistry data improves our understanding nitrification in chloraminated DWDSs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Potgieter, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venter, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sigudu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/655316</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Microbial Nitrogen Metabolism in Chloraminated Drinking Water Reservoirs]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/656082v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Assemblies of F-actin and myosin-II minifilaments: steric hindrance and stratification at the membrane cortex 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/656082v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent in-vivo studies have revealed that several membrane proteins are driven to form nanoclusters by active contractile flows arising from F-actin and myosin at the cortex. The mechanism of clustering was shown to be arising from the dynamic patterning of transient contractile platforms (asters) generated by actin and myosin. Myosin-II, which assemble as minifilaments consisting of tens of myosin heads, are rather bulky structures and hence a concern could be that steric considerations might obstruct the emergence of nanoclustering. Here, using coarse-grained, agent-based simulations that respect the size of constituents, we find that in the presence of steric hindrance, the patterns exhibited by actomyosin in two dimensions, do not resemble the steady state patterns observed in our in-vitro reconstitution of actomyosin on a supported bilayer. We then perform simulations in a thin rectangular slab, allowing the separation of a layer of actin filaments from those of myosin-II minifilaments. This recapitulates the observed features of in-vitro patterning. Using super resolution microscopy, we find direct evidence for stratification in our in-vitro system. Our study suggests the possibility that molecular stratification may be an important organising feature of the cortical cytoskeleton in-vivo.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Das, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhat, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sknepnek, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koester, D. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mayor, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rao, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-05-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/656082</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Assemblies of F-actin and myosin-II minifilaments: steric hindrance and stratification at the membrane cortex]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-05-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/660670v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Quasi-Mendelian Paternal Inheritance of mitochondrial DNA: A notorious artifact, or anticipated mtDNA behavior? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/660670v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A recent report by Luo et al (2018) in PNAS (DOI:10.1073/pnas.1810946115) presented evidence of biparental inheritance of mitochondrial DNA. The pattern of inheritance, however, resembled that of a nuclear gene. The authors explained this peculiarity with Mendelian segregation of a faulty gatekeeper gene that permits survival of paternal mtDNA in the oocyte. Three other groups (Vissing, 2019; Lutz-Bonengel and Parson, 2019; Salas et al, 2019), however, posited the observation was an artifact of inheritance of mtDNA nuclear pseudogenes (NUMTs), present in the fathers nuclear genome. We present justification that both interpretations are incorrect, but that the original authors did, in fact, observe biparental inheritance of mtDNA. Our alternative model assumes that because of initially low paternal mtDNA copy number these copies are randomly partitioned into nascent cell lineages. The paternal mtDNA haplotype must have a selective advantage, so  seeded cells will tend to proceed to fixation of the paternal haplotype in the course of development. We use modeling to emulate the dynamics of paternal genomes and predict their mode of inheritance and distribution in somatic tissue. The resulting offspring is a mosaic of cells that are purely maternal or purely paternal - including in the germline. This mosaicism explains the quasi-Mendelian segregation of the paternal mDNA. Our model is based on known aspects of mtDNA biology and explains all of the experimental observations outlined in Luo et. al., including maternal inheritance of the grand-paternal mtDNA.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Annis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleischmann, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kunz, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ellis, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/660670</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Quasi-Mendelian Paternal Inheritance of mitochondrial DNA: A notorious artifact, or anticipated mtDNA behavior?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/662353v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Visual dynamics cues in learning complex physical interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/662353v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
This study investigated the role of visual dynamics cues (VDCs) in learning to interact with a complex physical system. Manual gait training was used as an exemplary case, as it requires therapists to control the non-trivial locomotor dynamics of patients. A virtual analog was developed that allowed naive subjects to manipulate the leg of a virtual stroke survivor (a virtual patient; VP) walking on a treadmill using a small robotic manipulandum. The task was to make the VPs leg pass through early, mid, and late swing gait targets. One group of subjects (n = 17) started practice seeing the VPs affected thigh and shank (i.e., VDCs); a second control group (n = 16) only saw the point-of-contact (VP ankle). It was hypothesized that, if seeing the VPs leg provides beneficial dynamics information, the VDC group would have better task performance and generalization than controls. Results were not supportive. Both groups had similar task performance, and for the late swing gait target, a decrement in manipulative accuracy was observed when VDCs were removed in a generalization task. This suggests that when learning to manipulate complex dynamics, VDCs can create a dependency that negatively affects generalization if the visual context is changed.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hasson, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jalili, P. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/662353</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Visual dynamics cues in learning complex physical interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/665018v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The unjamming transition is distinct from the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/665018v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Every organ surface and body cavity is lined by a confluent collective of epithelial cells. In homeostatic circumstances the epithelial collective remains effectively solid-like and sedentary. But during morphogenesis, remodeling or repair, as well as during malignant invasion or metastasis, the epithelial collective becomes fluid-like and migratory1-4. This conversion from sedentary to migratory behavior has traditionally been understood as a manifestation of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) or the partial EMT (pEMT)5-8. However, in certain contexts this conversion has been attributed to the recently discovered unjamming transition (UJT), in which epithelial cells move collectively and cooperatively9-11. UJT and pEMT share certain aspects of collective cellular migration, but the extent to which these processes are distinct, overlapping or perhaps even identical has remained undefined. Using the confluent layer of well-differentiated primary human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells, here we triggered UJT by exposing the sedentary layer to mechanical compression9-12. Cells thereafter migrated cooperatively, aligned into packs locally, and elongated systematically. Nevertheless, cell-cell junctions, apico-basal polarity, and barrier function remained intact in response, and mesenchymal markers remained unapparent. As such, pEMT was not evident. When we triggered pEMT and associated cellular migration by exposing the sedentary layer to TGF-{beta}1, metrics of UJT versus pEMT diverged. To account for these striking physical observations a new mathematical model attributes the effects of pEMT mainly to diminished junctional tension but attributes those of UJT mainly to augmented cellular propulsion. Together, these findings establish that UJT is sufficient to account for vigorous epithelial layer migration even in the absence of pEMT. Distinct gateways to cellular migration therefore become apparent - UJT as it might apply to migration of epithelial sheets, and EMT/pEMT as it might apply to migration of mesenchymal cells on a solitary or collective basis, activated during development, remodeling, repair or tumor invasion. Through the actions of UJT and pEMT working independently, sequentially, or interactively, living tissue is therefore seen to comprise an active engineering material whose modules for plasticity, self-repair and regeneration, are far richer than had been previously appreciated.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mitchel, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Das, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Sullivan, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stancil, I. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeCamp, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koehler, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Butler, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fredberg, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieto, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, J.-A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/665018</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The unjamming transition is distinct from the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/665307v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High-throughput single-cell proteomics quantifies the emergence of macrophage heterogeneity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/665307v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Macrophages are innate immune cells with diverse functional and molecular phenotypes. This diversity is largely unexplored at the level of single-cell proteomes because of limitations of quantitative single-cell protein analysis. To overcome this limitation, we developed SCoPE2, which substantially increases quantitative accuracy and throughput while lowering cost and hands-on time by introducing automated and miniaturized sample preparation. These advances enable us to analyze the emergence of cellular heterogeneity as homogeneous monocytes differentiate into macrophage-like cells in the absence of polarizing cytokines. SCoPE2 quantified over 3,042 proteins in 1,490 single monocytes and macrophages in ten days of instrument time, and the quantified proteins allow us to discern single cells by cell type. Furthermore, the data uncover a continuous gradient of proteome states for the macrophages, suggesting that macrophage heterogeneity may emerge in the absence of polarizing cytokines. This gradient correlates to the inflammatory axis of classically and alternatively activated macrophages. Parallel measurements of transcripts by 10x Genomics suggest that our measurements sample 20-fold more protein copies than RNA copies per gene, and thus SCoPE2 supports quantification with improved count statistics. The joint distributions of proteins and transcripts allowed exploring regulatory interactions, such as between the tumor suppressor p53, its transcript, and the transcripts of genes regulated by p53. Our methodology lays the foundation for quantitative single-cell analysis of proteins by mass-spectrometry and demonstrates the potential for inferring transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation from variability across single cells.



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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emmott, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koller, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/665307</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High-throughput single-cell proteomics quantifies the emergence of macrophage heterogeneity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/675561v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Disinfectant residuals in drinking water systems select for mycobacterial populations with intrinsic antimicrobial resistance. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/675561v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in drinking water has received less attention than counterparts in the urban water cycle. While culture-based techniques or gene-centric PCR have been used to probe the impact of treatment approaches (e.g., disinfection) on AMR in drinking water, to our knowledge there is no systematic comparison of AMR traits between disinfected and disinfectant residual-free drinking water systems. We use metagenomics to assess the associations between disinfectant residuals and AMR prevalence and its host association in full-scale drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs). The differences in AMR profiles between DWDSs are associated with the presence or absence of disinfectant. Further, AMR genes and mechanisms enriched in disinfected systems are associated with drug classes primarily linked to nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). Finally, evaluation of metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) of NTM indicates that they possess AMR genes conferring intrinsic resistance to key antibiotics, whereas such NTM genomes were not detected in disinfectant residual free DWDSs. Thus, disinfection may not only influence the AMR profiles of the drinking water microbiome but also select for NTM with intrinsic AMR.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sevillano, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calus, S. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bautista de los Santos, Q. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eren, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ijaz, U. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van der Wielen, P. W. J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/675561</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Disinfectant residuals in drinking water systems select for mycobacterial populations with intrinsic antimicrobial resistance.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/676312v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
NeuroPAL: A Neuronal Polychromatic Atlas of Landmarks for Whole-Brain Imaging in C. elegans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/676312v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Comprehensively resolving single neurons and their cellular identities from whole-brain fluorescent images is a major challenge. We achieve this in C. elegans through the engineering and use of a multicolor transgene called NeuroPAL (a Neuronal Polychromatic Atlas of Landmarks). NeuroPAL worms share a stereotypical multicolor fluorescence map for the entire hermaphrodite nervous system that allows comprehensive determination of neuronal identities. Neurons labeled with NeuroPAL do not exhibit fluorescence in the green, cyan, or yellow emission channels, allowing the transgene to be used with numerous reporters of gene expression or neuronal dynamics. Here we showcase three studies that leverage NeuroPAL for nervous-system-wide neuronal identification. First, we determine the brainwide expression patterns of all metabotropic receptors for acetylcholine, GABA, and glutamate, completing a map of this communication network. Second, we uncover novel changes in cell fate caused by transcription factor mutations. Third, we record brainwide activity in response to attractive and repulsive chemosensory cues, characterizing multimodal coding and novel neuronal asymmetries for these stimuli. We present a software package that enables semi-automated determination of all neuronal identities based on color and positional information. The NeuroPAL framework and software provide a means to design landmark atlases for other tissues and organisms. In conclusion, we expect NeuroPAL to serve as an invaluable tool for gene expression analysis, neuronal fate studies, and for mapping whole-brain activity patterns.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yemini, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nejatbakhsh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varol, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mena, G. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samuel, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paninski, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hobert, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/676312</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[NeuroPAL: A Neuronal Polychromatic Atlas of Landmarks for Whole-Brain Imaging in C. elegans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/678920v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reproducible microbial community dynamics of two drinking water systems treating similar source waters. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/678920v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Understanding whether the spatial-temporal dynamics of the drinking water microbiome are reproducible in full-scale drinking water systems is an important step towards devising engineering strategies to manipulate it. Yet, direct comparisons across full-scale drinking water systems are challenging because multiple factors, from source water to treatment process choice and configuration, can be unique to each system. This study compared the spatial-temporal dynamics of the drinking water microbiome in two drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) with identical sequence of treatment strategies treating source waters from the same river system and with treated drinking water distributed in same large-scale (but independent) distribution system (DWDS) with similar disinfectant residual regiment. Dissimilarities in source water communities were tempered by the pre-disinfection treatments, resulting in highly similar post-filtration microbial communities between the two systems. However, high community turnover due to disinfection resulted in highly dissimilar microbial communities in the finished water between the two systems. Interestingly however, the microbial communities in the two systems increased in similarity during transit through the DWDS despite presence of a disinfectant residual. Overall our study finds that the drinking water microbiome demonstrated reproducible spatial and temporal dynamics within both independent but nearly identical DWTPs and their corresponding DWDSs.

Graphical abstract O_FIG_DISPLAY_L [Figure 1] M_FIG_DISPLAY C_FIG_DISPLAY
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Potgieter, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Havenga, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sigudu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venter, S. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/678920</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reproducible microbial community dynamics of two drinking water systems treating similar source waters.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/679746v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sustained Co-evolution in a Stochastic Model of the Cancer-Immune Interaction 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/679746v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The dynamical interaction between a growing cancer population and the adaptive immune system generates diverse evolutionary trajectories which ultimately result in tumor clearance or immune escape. Here, we create a simple mathematical model coupling T-cell recognition with an evolving cancer population which may randomly produce evasive subclones, imparting transient protection against the effector T-cells. We demonstrate that T-cell turnover declines and evasion rates together explain differential probabilities in early incidence data for almost all cancer types. Fitting the model to TRACERx evolutionary data argues in favor of substantial and sustained immune pressure exerted on a developing tumor, suggesting that measured incidence is a small proportion of all cancer initiation events. Most generally, dynamical models promise to increase our quantitative understanding of many immune escape contexts, with applications to cancer and intracellular pathogenic infections.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>George, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-06-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/679746</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sustained Co-evolution in a Stochastic Model of the Cancer-Immune Interaction]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-06-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/684019v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High-Resolution Tomographic Analysis of in vitro 3D Glioblastoma Tumor Model under Long-Term Drug Treatment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/684019v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an extremely lethal type of brain tumor as it frequently develops therapeutic resistance over months of chemotherapy cycles. Hence, there is a critical need to provide relevant biological systems to guide the development of new potent personalized drugs but also efficient methodologies that enable personalized prediction of various therapeutic regimens for enhanced patient prognosis. Towards this goal, we report on the development of i) an appropriate in vitro model that mimics the 3D tumor microenvironment and ii) a companion imaging modality that enables to assess this in vitro model in its entirety. More precisely, we developed an integrated platform of bio-printing in vitro 3D GBM models and mesoscopic imaging to monitor tumor growth and invasion along with long-term drug treatment. The newly-developed in vitro 3D model contains tumor spheroids made of patient-derived glioma stem cells with a fluorescent reporter and vascular channels for drug perfusion. The imaging of these thick tissue constructs was performed using our second-Generation Mesoscopic Fluorescence Molecular Tomography (2GMFMT) imaging system which delivered 3D reconstruction of the fluidic channels and the GBM spheroids over the course of pre- and post-drug treatment (up to 70 days). The 2D measurements collected via 2GMFMT was comparable to existing imaging modalities, but 2GMFMT enabled non-sacrificial volumetric monitoring that provided a unique insgiht into the GBM spheroid growth and drug response. Overall, our integrated platform provides customizable in vitro model systems combined with an efficient long-term non-sacrificial imaging for the volumetric change of tumor mass, thus has a great potential in profoundly affecting the drug pipeline for a vast array of pathologies as well as for guiding personalized therapeutic regimen.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ozturk, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, V. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friedel, R. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Intes, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/684019</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High-Resolution Tomographic Analysis of in vitro 3D Glioblastoma Tumor Model under Long-Term Drug Treatment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/691808v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Channeling macrophage polarization by using a selective translation inhibitor 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/691808v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Macrophages contribute to host immunity and tissue homeostasis via alternative activation programs. M1-like macrophages control intracellular bacterial pathogens and tumor progression. In contrast, M2-like macrophages shape reparative microenvironments that can be conducive for pathogen survival or tumor growth. An imbalance of these macrophages phenotypes may perpetuate sites of chronic unresolved inflammation, such as infectious granulomas and solid tumors.

We have found that plant-derived and synthetic rocaglates sensitize macrophages to low concentrations of the M1-inducing cytokine IFN-gamma and inhibit their responsiveness to IL-4, a prototypical activator of the M2-like phenotype. Treatement of primary macrophages with rocaglates increased their resilience to oxidative stress, stimulated autophagy and killing of intracellular mycobacteria. Thus, rocaglates represent a novel class of immunomodulators that can direct macrophage polarization towards the M1-like phenotype in complex microenvironments associated with hypofunction of type 1 and/or hyperactivation of type 2 immunity, e.g. chronic bacterial infections, allergies and, possibly, certain tumors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chatterjee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waligurski, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhattacharya, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yabaji, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vallavoju, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roy, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, L. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beeler, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ivanov, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kobzik, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Porco, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kramnik, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/691808</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Channeling macrophage polarization by using a selective translation inhibitor]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/695320v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mathematical models of protease-based enzymatic biosensors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/695320v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
An important goal of synthetic biology is to build biosensors and circuits with well-defined input-output relationships that operate at speeds found in natural biological systems. However, for molecular computation, most commonly used genetic circuit elements typically involve several steps from input detection to output signal production: transcription, translation, and post-translational modifications. These multiple steps together require up to several hours to respond to a single stimulus, and this limits the overall speed and complexity of genetic circuits. To address this gap, molecular frame-works that rely exclusively on post-translational steps to realize reaction networks that can process inputs at a timescale of seconds to minutes have been proposed. Here, we build mathematical models of fast biosensors capable of producing Boolean logic functionality. We employ protease-based chemical and light-induced switches, investigate their operation, and provide selection guidelines for their use as on-off switches. We then use these switches as elementary blocks, developing models for biosensors that can perform OR and XOR Boolean logic computation while using reaction conditions as tuning parameters. We use sensitivity analysis to determine the time-dependent sensitivity of the output to proteolytic and protein-protein binding reaction parameters. These fast protease-based biosensors can be used to implement complex molecular circuits with a capability of processing multiple inputs controllably and algorithmically. Our framework for evaluating and optimizing circuit performance can be applied to other molecular logic circuits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Agrawal, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khare, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/695320</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mathematical models of protease-based enzymatic biosensors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/696351v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Long solids retention times and attached growth phase favor prevalence of comammox bacteria in nitrogen removal systems. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/696351v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The discovery of the complete ammonia oxidizing (comammox) bacteria overturns the traditional two-organism nitrification paradigm which largely underpins the design and operation of nitrogen removal during wastewater treatment. Quantifying the abundance, diversity, and activity of comammox bacteria in wastewater treatment systems is important for ensuring a clear understanding of the nitrogen biotransformations responsible for ammonia removal. To this end, we conducted a yearlong survey of 14 full-scale nitrogen removal systems including mainstream conventional and simultaneous nitrification-denitrification and side-stream partial nitrification-anammox systems with varying process configurations. Metagenomics and genome-resolved metagenomics identified comammox bacteria in mainstream conventional and simultaneous nitrification-denitrification systems, with no evidence for their presence in side-stream partial nitrification-anammox systems. Further, comammox bacterial diversity was restricted to clade A and these clade A comammox bacteria were detected in systems with long solids retention times (>10 days) and/or in the attached growth phase. Using a newly designed qPCR assay targeting the amoB gene of clade A comammox bacteria in combination with quantitation of other canonical nitrifiers, we show that long solids retention time is the key process parameter associated with the prevalence and abundance of comammox bacteria. The increase in comammox bacterial abundance was not associated with concomitant decrease in the abundance of canonical nitrifiers; however, systems with comammox bacteria showed significantly better and temporally stable ammonia removal compared to systems where they were not detected. Finally, in contrast to recent studies, we do not find any significant association of comammox bacterial prevalence and abundance with dissolved oxygen concentrations in this study.nnHighlightsO_LIClade A comammox bacteria were detected in wastewater nitrogen removal systems.nC_LIO_LINew qPCR assay targeting the amoB gene of clade A comammox bacteria was developed.nC_LIO_LIComammox bacteria are prevalent in mainstream conventional and simultaneous nitrification-denitrification systems with long solids retention times (>10 days).nC_LIO_LIComammox bacteria were not detected in sidestream partial nitrification-anammox systems included in this study.nC_LInnnnO_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=127 SRC="FIGDIR/small/696351v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">nView larger version (28K):norg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@3228c9org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@113dfb8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1c4adaforg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@166f997_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG GRAPHICAL ABSTRACTnnC_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cotto, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vilardi, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ijaz, U. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khunjar, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Clippeleir, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilmore, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bailey, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/696351</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Long solids retention times and attached growth phase favor prevalence of comammox bacteria in nitrogen removal systems.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/696716v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A computational framework for a Lyapunov-enabled analysis of biochemical reaction networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/696716v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Complex molecular biological processes such as transcription and translation, signal transduction, post-translational modification cascades, and metabolic pathways can be described in principle by biochemical reactions that explicitly take into account the sophisticated network of chemical interactions regulating cell life. The ability to deduce the possible qualitative behaviors of such networks from a set of reactions is a central objective and an ongoing challenge in the field of systems biology. Unfortunately, the construction of complete mathematical models is often hindered by a pervasive problem: despite the wealth of qualitative graphical knowledge about network interactions, the form of the governing nonlinearities and/or the values of kinetic constants are hard to uncover experimentally. The kinetics can also change with environmental variations.

This work addresses the following question: given a set of reactions and without assuming a particular form for the kinetics, what can we say about the asymptotic behavior of the network? Specifically, it introduces a class of networks that are "structurally (mono) attractive" meaning that they are incapable of exhibiting multiple steady states, oscillation, or chaos by virtue of their reaction graphs. These networks are characterized by the existence of a universal energy-like function called a Robust Lyapunov function (RLF). To find such functions, a finite set of rank-one linear systems is introduced, which form the extremals of a linear convex cone. The problem is then reduced to that of finding a common Lyapunov function for this set of extremals. Based on this characterization, a computational package, Lyapunov-Enabled Analysis of Reaction Networks (LEARN), is provided that constructs such functions or rules out their existence.

An extensive study of biochemical networks demonstrates that LEARN offers a new unified framework. Basic motifs, three-body binding, and genetic networks are studied first. The work then focuses on cellular signalling networks including various post-translational modification cascades, phosphotransfer and phosphorelay networks, T-cell kinetic proofreading, and ERK signalling. The Ribosome Flow Model is also studied.

Author summaryA theoretical and computational framework is developed for the identification of biochemical networks that are "structurally attractive". This means that they only allow global point attractors and they cannot exhibit any other asymptotic behavior such as multi-stability, oscillations, or chaos for any choice of the kinetics. They are characterized by the existence of energy-like functions. A computational package is made available for usage by a wider community. Many relevant networks in molecular biology satisfy the assumptions, and some are analyzed for the first time.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ali Al-Radhawi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Angeli, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/696716</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A computational framework for a Lyapunov-enabled analysis of biochemical reaction networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/700666v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Too much, too young? Altered corticolimbic axonal innervation and resting state functional connectivity suggests sex-dependent outcomes in a rat model of early life adversity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/700666v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adverse early experiences significantly alter behavioral and neural trajectories via aberrant brain maturation. Children with a history of early life stress (ELS) exhibit maladaptive behaviors and increased risk of mental illness later in life. Evidence in ELS-exposed humans identifies a role of atypical corticolimbic development; specifically, within amygdala-prefrontal cortex (PFC) circuits, and show precocially mature task-based corticolimbic functional connectivity (FC). However, the neurobiological substrates of such ELS-driven developmental changes remain unknown. Here, we identify putative neurobiological changes to determine the timeline of developmental perturbations following ELS in rats. Anterograde axonal tracing from basolateral amygdala (BLA) to pre- and infralimbic (PL, IL) PFC was quantified at postnatal days (PD)28, 38, and 48, along with anxiety-like behavior, in maternally separated (ELS) or control reared (CON) male and female rats. Resting state (rs)FC was assessed at PD28 and PD48 in a separate cohort. We report that ELS-exposed female rats show early maturation of BLA-PFC innervation at PD28, with ELS-related changes in males not appearing until PD38. ELS disrupted the maturation of rsFC from PD28 to PD48 in females, with enduring relationships between early rsFC and later anxiety-like behavior. Only transient ELS-related changes in rsFC were seen in male PL. Together, these data provide evidence that female rats may be more vulnerable to the effects of ELS via precocial BLA-PFC innervation, which may drive altered corticolimbic rsFC. These data also provide evidence that increased BLA-IL rsFC is associated with behavioral resiliency following ELS in female rats, providing mechanistic insight into the underlying etiology of adversity-induced vulnerability and resiliency.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Honeycutt, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Demaestri, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peterzell, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silveri, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulkarni, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cunningham, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferris, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenhouse, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/700666</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Too much, too young? Altered corticolimbic axonal innervation and resting state functional connectivity suggests sex-dependent outcomes in a rat model of early life adversity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/706705v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Paternal age in rhesus macaques is positively associated with germline mutation accumulation but not with measures of offspring sociability 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/706705v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutation is the ultimate source of all genetic novelty and the cause of heritable genetic disorders. Mutational burden has been linked to complex disease, including neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. The rate of mutation is a fundamental genomic parameter and direct estimates of this parameter have been enabled by accurate comparisons of whole-genome sequences between parents and offspring. Studies in humans have revealed that the paternal age at conception explains most of the variation in mutation rate: each additional year of paternal age in humans leads to approximately 1.5 additional mutations inherited by the child. Here, we present an estimate of the de novo mutation rate in the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) using whole-genome sequence data from 32 individuals in four large pedigrees. We estimated an average mutation rate of 0.58 x 10-8 per base pair per generation (at an average parental age of 7.5 years), much lower than found in direct estimates from great apes (including human, chimpanzee, and gorilla). As in humans, older macaque fathers transmit more mutations to their offspring, approximately 1.5 extra mutations per year in our probands. Mutations at CpG sites accounted for 24% of all observed point mutations. We found that the rate of mutation accumulation after puberty is similar between macaques and humans, but that a smaller number of mutations accumulate before puberty in macaques. We additionally investigated the role of paternal age on offspring sociability, a proxy for normal neurodevelopment. In 203 male macaques studied in large social groups, we found no relationship between paternal age and multiple measures of social function. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders with paternal age in primates is not primarily due to de novo mutations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, G. W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raveendran, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doddapaneni, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muzny, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capitanio, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rogers, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hahn, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-07-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/706705</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Paternal age in rhesus macaques is positively associated with germline mutation accumulation but not with measures of offspring sociability]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-07-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/726646v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Genetic and molecular mechanism for distinct clinical phenotypes conveyed by allelic truncating mutations implicated in FBN1 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/726646v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The molecular and genetic mechanisms by which different single nucleotide variant (SNV) alleles in specific genes, or at the same genetic locus, bring about distinct disease phenotypes often remain unclear. Allelic truncating mutations of fibrillin-1(FBN1) cause either classical Marfan syndrome (MFS) or a more severe phenotype associated with Marfanoid-progeroid-lipodystrophy syndrome (MPLS). A total of three Marfan syndrome/Marfanoid patients (2 singletons and 1 parent-offspring trio) were recruited. Targeted next-generation sequencing was performed on all the participants. We analyzed the molecular diagnosis, patient clinical features, and the potential molecular mechanism involved in the MPLS subject in our cohort. We investigated a small cohort, consisting of two classical MFS and one MPLS patient from China, whose clinical presentation included scoliosis potentially requiring surgical intervention. We provide evidence that most nonsense and frameshift mutations lead to FBN1 null alleles due to mutant mRNA transcript degradation. In contrast, the more severe disease phenotype, MPLS, is caused by mutant mRNAs that are predicted to escape the nonsense mediated decay (NMD) surveillance pathway, making a mutant protein that exerts a dominant negative interference effect to FBN1 thus generating a gain-of-function (GoF) rather than a loss-of-function (LoF) allele as in MFS. Overall, we provide direct evidence that a dominant negative interaction of FBN1 potentially explains the distinct clinical phenotype in MPLS patients through genetic and functional analysis of the first Chinese patient with MPLS. Moreover, our study expands the mutation spectrum of FBN1 and highlights the potential molecular mechanism for MPLS patients.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wu, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akdemir, Z. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, X.-Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>You, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fonseca, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Posey, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lupski, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/726646</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Genetic and molecular mechanism for distinct clinical phenotypes conveyed by allelic truncating mutations implicated in FBN1]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/731018v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inferring reaction network structure from single-cell, multiplex data, using toric systems theory 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/731018v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The goal of many single-cell studies on eukaryotic cells is to gain insight into the biochemical reactions that control cell fate and state. In this paper we introduce the concept of effective stoichiometric space (ESS) to guide the reconstruction of biochemical networks from multiplexed, fixed time-point, single-cell data. In contrast to methods based solely on statistical models of data, the ESS method leverages the power of the geometric theory of toric varieties to begin unraveling the structure of chemical reaction networks (CRN). This application of toric theory enables a data-driven mapping of covariance relationships in single cell measurements into stoichiometric information, one in which each cell subpopulation has its associated ESS interpreted in terms of CRN theory. In the development of ESS we reframe certain aspects of the theory of CRN to better match data analysis. As an application of our approach we process cytomery- and image-based single-cell datasets and identify differences in cells treated with kinase inhibitors. Our approach is directly applicable to data acquired using readily accessible experimental methods such as Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) and multiplex immunofluorescence.nnAuthor summaryWe introduce a new notion, which we call the effective stoichiometric space (ESS), that elucidates network structure from the covariances of single-cell multiplexed data. The ESS approach differs from methods that are based on purely statistical models of data: it allows a completely new and data-driven translation of the theory of toric varieties in geometry and specifically their role in chemical reaction networks (CRN). In the process, we reframe certain aspects of the theory of CRN. As illustrations of our approach, we find stoichiometry in different single-cell datasets, and pinpoint dose-dependence of network perturbations in drug-treated cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, J.-r.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sorger, P. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/731018</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inferring reaction network structure from single-cell, multiplex data, using toric systems theory]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/732073v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Improvising at Rest: Differentiating Jazz and Classical Music Training with Resting State Functional Connectivity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/732073v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Jazz improvisation offers a model for creative cognition, as it involves the real-time creation of a novel, information-rich product. Previous research has shown that when musicians improvise, they recruit regions in the Default Mode Network (DMN) and Executive Control Network (ECN). Here, we ask whether these findings from task-fMRI studies might extend to intrinsic differences in resting state functional connectivity. We compared Improvising musicians, Classical musicians, and Minimally Musically Trained (MMT) controls in seed-based functional connectivity and network analyses in resting state functional MRI. We also examined the functional correlates of behavioral performance in musical improvisation and divergent thinking. Seed-based analysis consistently showed higher connectivity in ventral DMN (vDMN) and bilateral ECN in both groups of musically trained individuals as compared to MMT controls, with additional group differences in primary visual network, precuneus network, and posterior salience network. In particular, primary visual network connectivity to DMN and ECN was highest in Improvisational musicians, whereas within-network connectivity of vDMN and precuneus network was higher in both Improvisational and Classical musicians than in MMT controls; in contrast, connectivity between posterior salience network and superior parietal lobule was highest in Classical musicians. Furthermore, graph-theoretical analysis indicated heightened betweenness centrality, clustering, and local efficiency in Classical musicians. Taken together, results suggest that heightened functional connectivity among musicians can be explained by higher within-network connectivity (more tight-knit cortical networks) in Classical musicians, as opposed to more disperse, globally-connected cortical networks in Improvisational musicians.nnHighlightsO_LIMusic training is associated with higher resting state connectivitynC_LIO_LIHigher connectivity in Improvisational musicians from visual network to ECN and DMNnC_LIO_LIClassical musicians show higher vDMN and Precuneus within-network connectivitynC_LIO_LIImprovisation and divergent thinking performance correlate with similar connectivity patternsnC_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Belden, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeng, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Przysinda, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anteraper, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/732073</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Improvising at Rest: Differentiating Jazz and Classical Music Training with Resting State Functional Connectivity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/733006v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Anticipating critical transitions in epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal cell-fate determination 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/733006v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In the vicinity of a tipping point, critical transitions occur when small changes in an input condition causes sudden, large and often irreversible changes in the state of a system. Many natural systems ranging from ecosystems to molecular biosystems are known to exhibit critical transitions in their response to stochastic perturbations. In diseases, an early prediction of upcoming critical transitions from a healthy to a disease state by using early warning signals is of prime interest due to potential application in forecasting disease onset. Here, we analyze cell-fate transitions between different phenotypes (epithelial, hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal (E/M) and mesenchymal states) that are implicated in cancer metastasis and chemoresistance. These transitions are mediated by a mutually inhibitory feedback loop microRNA-200/ZEB driven by the levels of transcription factor SNAIL. We find that the proximity to tipping points enabling these transitions among different phenotypes can be captured by critical slowing down based early warning signals, calculated from the trajectory of ZEB mRNA level. Further, the basin stability analysis reveals the unexpectedly large basin of attraction for a hybrid E/M phenotype. Finally, we identified mechanisms that can potentially elude the transition to a hybrid E/M phenotype. Overall, our results unravel the early warning signals that can be used to anticipate upcoming epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal transitions. With the emerging evidence about the hybrid E/M phenotype being a key driver of metastasis, drug resistance, and tumor relapse; our results suggest ways to potentially evade these transitions, reducing the fitness of cancer cells and restricting tumor aggressiveness.nnSignificance StatementEpithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal transitions play critical roles in cancer metastasis, drug resistance, and tumor relapse. Recent studies have proposed that cells in a hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal phenotype may be more aggressive than those on either end of the spectrum. However, no biomarker to predict upcoming transitions has been identified. Here, we show that critical slowing down based early warning signals can detect sudden transitions among epithelial, hybrid E/M, and mesenchymal phenotypes. Importantly, our results highlight how stable a hybrid E/M phenotype can be, and how can a transition to this state be avoided. Thus, our study provides valuable insights into restricting cellular plasticity en route metastasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sarkar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sinha, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dutta, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/733006</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Anticipating critical transitions in epithelial-hybrid-mesenchymal cell-fate determination]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/734269v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Intercellular communication controls agonist-induced calcium oscillations independently of gap junctions in smooth muscle cells. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/734269v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We report the existence of a unique mode of communication among human smooth muscle cells (SMCs) where they use force to frequency modulate long-range calcium waves. An important consequence of this mechanical signaling is that changes in stiffness of the underlying extracellular matrix can interfere with the frequency modulation of Ca2+ waves causing healthy SMCs to falsely perceive a much higher agonist dose than they actually received. This distorted sensing of contractile agonist dose on stiffer matrices is absent in isolated SMCs, even though the isolated cells can sense matrix rigidity. We show that intercellular communication that enables this collective Ca2+ response does not involve transport across gap junctions or extracellular diffusion of signaling molecules. The aberrant communication between cells that distorts the individual cell's perception of contractile stimulus can explain the sudden, exaggerated narrowing of the lumen when exposed to low dose of inhaled agonists in diseases like asthma.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stasiak, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jamieson, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bouffard, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parameswaran, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/734269</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Intercellular communication controls agonist-induced calcium oscillations independently of gap junctions in smooth muscle cells.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/739961v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SGID: a comprehensive and interactive database of the silkworm 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/739961v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Although the domestic silkworm (Bombyx mori) is an important model and economic animal, there is a lack of comprehensive database for this organism. Here, we developed the silkworm genome informatics database, SGID. It aims to bring together all silkworm related biological data and provide an interactive platform for gene inquiry and analysis. The function annotation in SGID is thorough and covers 98% of the silkworm genes. The annotation details include function description, gene ontology, KEGG, pathway, subcellular location, transmembrane topology, protein secondary/tertiary structure, homologous group and transcription factor. SGID provides genome scale visualization of population genetics test results based on high depth resequencing data of 158 silkworm samples. It also provides interactive analysis tools of transcriptomic and epigenomic data from 79 NCBI BioProjects. SGID is freely available at http://sgid.popgenetics.net. This database will be extremely useful to silkworm research in the future.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guan, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/739961</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SGID: a comprehensive and interactive database of the silkworm]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/743583v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An MRI-Derived Neuroanatomical Atlas of the Fischer 344 Rat Brain for Automated Anatomical Segmentation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/743583v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
This paper reports the development of a high-resolution 3-D MRI atlas of the Fischer 344 adult rat brain. The atlas is a 60 m isotropic image volume composed of 256 coronal slices with 71 manually delineated structures and substructures. The atlas was developed using Pydpiper image registration pipeline to create an average brain image of 41 four-month-old male and female Fischer 344 rats. Slices in the average brain image were then manually segmented, individually and bilaterally, on the basis of image contrast in conjunction with Paxinos and Watsons (2007) stereotaxic rat brain atlas. Summary statistics (mean and standard deviation of regional volumes) are reported for each brain region across the sample used to generate the atlas, and a statistical comparison of a chosen subset of regional brain volumes between male and female rats is presented. On average, the coefficient of variation of regional brain volumes across all rats in our sample was 4%, with no individual brain region having a coefficient of variation greater than 13%. A full description of methods used, as well as the atlas, the template that the atlas was derived from, and a masking file, can be found at Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3555556. To our knowledge, this is the first MRI atlas created using Fischer 344 rats and will thus provide an appropriate neuroanatomical model for researchers working with this strain.

HIGHLIGHTS Open-access high-resolution anatomical MRI template for Fischer 344 rat brain.
 Segmented atlas of 71 regions for use as a tool in Fischer 344 preclinical research paradigms.
 Analysis of population variability of regional brain volumes.
 Analysis of sex-differences in regional brain volumes
KEYWORDS: Fischer 344; Structural MRI; Segmentation; Rat brain template; Digital brain atlas; Sex-differences;
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Goerzen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fowler, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Devenyi, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Germann, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madularu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakravarty, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Near, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/743583</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An MRI-Derived Neuroanatomical Atlas of the Fischer 344 Rat Brain for Automated Anatomical Segmentation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/750950v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Machine learning guided association of adverse drug reactions with in vitro target-based pharmacology 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/750950v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in health care. Understanding which drug targets are linked to ADRs can lead to the development of safer medicines. Here, we analyze in vitro secondary pharmacology of common (off) targets for 2134 marketed drugs. To associate these drugs with human ADRs, we utilized FDA Adverse Event Reports and developed random forest models that predict ADR occurrences from in vitro pharmacological profiles. By evaluating Gini importance scores of model features, we identify 221 target-ADR associations, which co-occur in PubMed abstracts to a greater extent than expected by chance. Among these are established relations, such as the association of in vitro hERG binding with cardiac arrhythmias, which further validate our machine learning approach. Evidence on bile acid metabolism supports our identification of associations between the Bile Salt Export Pump and renal, thyroid, lipid metabolism, respiratory tract and central nervous system disorders. Unexpectedly, our model suggests PDE3 is associated with 40 ADRs. These associations provide a comprehensive resource to support drug development and human biology studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Arat, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ietswaart, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, A. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farahmand, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armstrong, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Urban, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/750950</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Machine learning guided association of adverse drug reactions with in vitro target-based pharmacology]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/775908v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Neural Network Based Algorithm for Dynamically Adjusting Activity Targets to Sustain Exercise Engagement Among People Using Activity Trackers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/775908v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
It is well established that lack of physical activity is detrimental to overall health of an individual. Modern day activity trackers enable individuals to monitor their daily activity to meet and maintain targets and to promote activity encouraging behavior. However, the benefits of activity trackers are attenuated over time due to waning adherence. One of the key methods to improve adherence to goals is to motivate individuals to improve on their historic performance metrics. In this work we developed a machine learning model to dynamically adjust the activity target for the forthcoming week that can be realistically achieved by the activity-tracker users. This model prescribes activity target for the forthcoming week. We considered individual user-specific personal, social, and environmental factors, daily step count through the current week (7 days). In addition, we computed an entropy measure that characterizes the pattern of daily step count for the current week. Data for training the machine learning model was collected from 30 participants over a duration of 9 weeks. The model predicted target daily count with mean absolute error of 1545 steps. The proposed work can be used to set personalized goals in accordance with the individuals level of activity and thereby improving adherence to fitness tracker.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mohammadi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Centi, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atif, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agboola, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jethwani, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kvedar, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamarthi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-09-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/775908</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Neural Network Based Algorithm for Dynamically Adjusting Activity Targets to Sustain Exercise Engagement Among People Using Activity Trackers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-09-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/781609v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A highly prevalent and pervasive densovirus discovered among sea stars from the North American Atlantic Coast 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/781609v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Viral metagenomes prepared from tissues from Forbes sea star (Asterias forbesi) led to the discovery of a complete genome of a novel sea star densovirus (AfaDV). The genome organization of AfaDV and phylogenetic analysis place this virus among the Ambidensovirus genus in the subfamily Densoviridae, family Parvoviridae. AfaDV shares 78% nucleotide pairwise identity to the sea star associated densovirus (SSaDV), previously described as the putative causative agent of Sea Star Wasting Syndrome among sea stars from the Northwest Pacific. SSaDV was not found in specimens collected in this study, and the discovery of AfaDV might explain previous reports of SSaDV among sea stars from the Atlantic Coast. A qPCR assay was designed to assess tissue tropism, host specificity, and prevalence of AfaDV among wild populations of sea stars at five locations on the North American Atlantic Coast. AfaDV was detected in all three common sea star species (Asterias forbesi, Asterias rubens, and Henricia sp.) found in the region and was highly prevalent (80-100% of individuals tested, n=134), among populations collected at disparate sites 7 years apart. AfaDV was detected in the body wall, gonads, and pyloric caeca (digestive gland) of specimens but was not detected in their coelomic fluid. A significant difference in viral load was found between tissue types with the pyloric caeca having the highest viral load suggesting it is the primary site of viral replication in the animal. Further investigation of Asterias forbesi gonad tissue found germline cells (oocytes) to be virus positive suggesting a potential route of vertical transmission. Taken together, these observations show that the presence AfaDV is not an indicator of Sea Star Wasting Syndrome because AfaDV is a common constituent of these animals microbiome, regardless of health. These results broaden the understanding of echinoderm densoviruses outside the context of disease that suggest these viruses might form commensal or mutualistic relationships with their hosts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jackson, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pepe-Ranney, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Distel, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hewson, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-09-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/781609</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A highly prevalent and pervasive densovirus discovered among sea stars from the North American Atlantic Coast]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-09-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/802520v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Intercellular adhesion stiffness moderates cell decoupling on stiff substrates 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/802520v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The interplay between cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions is complex yet necessary for the formation and well-functioning of tissues. The same mechanosensing mechanisms used by the cell to sense its extracellular matrix, also play a role in intercellular interactions. We used the discrete element method to develop a computational model of a deformable cell that includes subcellular components responsible for mechanosensing. We modeled a cell pair in 3D on a patterned substrate, a simple laboratory setup to study intercellular interactions. We explicitly modeled focal adhesions between the cells and the substrate, and adherens junctions between cells. These mechanosensing adhesions matured; their disassembly rate was dictated by the force they carry. We also modeled stress fibers which bind the discrete adhesions and contract. The mechanosensing fibers strengthened upon stalling and exerted higher forces. Traction exerted on the substrate was used to generate maps displaying the magnitude of the tractions along the cell-substrate interface. Simulated traction maps are compared to experimental maps obtained via traction force microscopy. The model recreates the dependence on substrate stiffness of the tractions spatial distribution across the cell-substrate interface, the contractile moment of the cell pair, the intercellular force, and the number of focal adhesions. It also recreates the phenomenon of cell decoupling, in which cells exert forces separately when substrate stiffness increases. More importantly, the model provides viable molecular explanations for decoupling. It shows that the implemented mechanosensing mechanisms are responsible for competition between different fiber-adhesion configurations present in the cell pair. The point at which an increasing substrate stiffness becomes as high as that of the cell-cell interface is the tipping point at which configurations that favor cell-substrate adhesion dominate over those favoring cell-cell adhesion. This competition is responsible for decoupling. Additionally, we learn that extent of decoupling is modulated by adherens junction maturation.nnStatement of SignificanceCells are sensitive to mechanical factors of their extracellular matrix while simultaneously in contact with other cells. This creates complex intercellular interactions that depend on substrate stiffness and play a role in processes such as development and diseases like cardiac arrhythmia, asthma, and cancer. The simplest cell collective system in vitro is a cell pair on a patterned substrate. We developed a computational model of this system which explains the role of molecular adhesions and contractile fibers in the dynamics of cell-cell interactions on substrates with different stiffness. It is one of the first models of a deformable cell collective based on mechanical principles. It recreates cellular decoupling, a phenomenon in which cells exert forces separately, when substrate stiffness increases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vargas, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heck, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smeets, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramon, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parameswaran, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Van Oosterwyck, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/802520</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Intercellular adhesion stiffness moderates cell decoupling on stiff substrates]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/806919v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Niche-inspired synthetic matrices for epithelial organoid culture 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/806919v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epithelial organoids are now an important tool in fields ranging from regenerative medicine to drug discovery. Organoid culture requires Matrigel, a complex, tumor-derived, extracellular matrix. An alternative completely synthetic matrix could improve culture reproducibility, clarify mechanistic phenomena, and enable applications involving human implantation. Here, we designed synthetic matrices with tunable biomolecular and biophysical properties that allowed us to identify critical gel parameters in organoid formation. Inspired by known epithelial integrin expression in the proliferative niche of the human intestine, we identified an 2{beta}1 integrin-binding peptide as a critical component of the synthetic matrix that supports human duodenal colon and endometrial organoid propagation. We show that organoids emerge from single cells, retain their proliferative capacity, are functionally responsive to basolateral stimulation and have correct apicobasal polarity upon induction of differentiation. The local biophysical presentation of the cues, rather than bulk mechanical properties, appears to be the dominant parameter governing epithelial cell proliferation and organoid formation in the synthetic matrix.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hernandez-Gordillo, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kassis, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lampejo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gamboa, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gnecco, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Breault, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carrier, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffith, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/806919</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Niche-inspired synthetic matrices for epithelial organoid culture]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/809392v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
RecA influences biofilm development in the opportunistic pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/809392v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii, a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen, are difficult to eradicate due to the bacteriums propensity to quickly gain antibiotic resistances and form biofilms, a protective bacterial multicellular community. The A. baumannii DNA damage response (DDR) mediates the antibiotic resistance acquisition and regulates RecA in an atypical fashion; both RecALow and RecAHigh cell types are formed in response to DNA damage. The findings of this study demonstrate that the levels of RecA can influence the development, formation and dispersal, of biofilms through the global biofilm regulator bfmR. RecA loss results in surface attachment and prominent biofilms, while elevated RecA leads to diminished attachment and dispersal. These findings suggest that the challenge to treat A. baumannii infections may be explained by the induction of the DDR, common during infection, as well as the delicate balance between maintaining biofilms in low RecA cells, and promoting mutagenesis and dispersal in high RecA cells. This study underscores the importance of understanding the fundamental biology of bacteria to develop more effective treatments for infections.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ching, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Downs, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muller, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isley, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fowle, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Godoy, V. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/809392</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[RecA influences biofilm development in the opportunistic pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/809889v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Drug-tolerant idling melanoma cells exhibit theory-predicted metabolic low-low phenotype 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/809889v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cancer cells adjust their metabolic profiles to evade treatment. Metabolic adaptation is complex and hence better understood by an integrated theoretical-experimental approach. Using a minimal kinetic model, we predicted a previously undescribed Low/Low (L/L) phenotype, characterized by low oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and low glycolysis. Here, we report that L/L metabolism is observed in BRAF-mutated melanoma cells that enter a drug-tolerant "idling state" upon long-term MAPK inhibition (MAPKi). Consistently, using publicly available RNA-sequencing data of both cell lines and patient samples, we show that melanoma cells decrease their glycolysis and/or OXPHOS activity upon MAPKi and converge toward the L/L phenotype. L/L metabolism is unfavorable for tumor growth, yet supports successful cell division at ~50% rate. Thus, L/L drug-tolerant idling cells are a reservoir for accumulating mutations responsible for relapse, and it should be considered as a target subpopulation for improving MAPKi outcomes in melanoma treatment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jia, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paudel, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayford, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hardeman, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quaranta, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/809889</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Drug-tolerant idling melanoma cells exhibit theory-predicted metabolic low-low phenotype]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/814368v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Short-term circulating tumor cell dynamics in mouse xenograft models and implications for liquid biopsy. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/814368v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
MotivationCirculating tumor cells (CTCs) are widely studied using liquid biopsy methods that analyze single, fractionally-small peripheral blood (PB) samples. However, little is known about fluctuations in CTC numbers that occur over short timescales in vivo, and how these may affect accurate enumeration from blood samples.

MethodsWe recently developed an instrument called  diffuse in vivo flow cytometry (DiFC) that allows continuous, non-invasive counting of rare, green fluorescent protein expressing CTCs in large deeply-seated blood vessels in mice. Here, we used DiFC to study short-term changes in CTC numbers in multiple myeloma and Lewis lung carcinoma xenograft models. We analyzed 35- to 50-minute data sets, with intervals corresponding to approximately 1, 5, 10 and 20% of the PB volume, as well as changes over 24-hour periods.

ResultsFor rare CTCs, the use of short DiFC intervals (corresponding to small PB samples) frequently resulted in no detections. For more abundant CTCs, CTC numbers frequently varied by an order of magnitude or more over the time-scales considered. This variability far exceeded that expected by Poisson statistics, and instead was consistent with rapidly changing mean numbers of CTCs in the PB.

ConclusionsBecause of these natural temporal changes, accurately enumerating CTCs from fractionally small blood samples is inherently problematic. The problem is likely to be compounded for multicellular CTC clusters or specific CTC subtypes. However, we also show that enumeration can be improved by averaging multiple samples, analysis of larger volumes, or development of new methods for enumeration of CTCs directly in vivo.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Williams, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fitzgerald, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niedre, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/814368</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Short-term circulating tumor cell dynamics in mouse xenograft models and implications for liquid biopsy.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/815977v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
GPU-accelerated mesh-based Monte Carlo photon transport simulations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/815977v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The mesh-based Monte Carlo (MMC) algorithm is increasingly used as the gold-standard for developing new biophotonics modeling techniques in 3-D complex tissues, including both diffusion-based and various Monte Carlo (MC) based methods. Compared to multi-layered and voxel-based MCs, MMC can utilize tetrahedral meshes to gain improved anatomical accuracy, but also results in higher computational and memory demands. Previous attempts of accelerating MMC using graphics processing units (GPUs) have yielded limited performance improvement and are not publicly available. Here we report a highly efficient MMC - MMCL - using the OpenCL heterogeneous computing framework, and demonstrate a speedup ratio up to 420x compared to state-of-the-art single-threaded CPU simulations. The MMCL simulator supports almost all advanced features found in our widely disseminated MMC software, such as support for a dozen of complex source forms, wide-field detectors, boundary reflection, photon replay and storing a rich set of detected photon information. Furthermore, this tool supports a wide range of GPUs/CPUs across vendors and is freely available with full source codes and benchmark suites at http://mcx.space/#mmc.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/815977</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[GPU-accelerated mesh-based Monte Carlo photon transport simulations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/826933v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Secondary metabolic symbiosis in shipworms (Teredinidae) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/826933v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Shipworms play critical roles in recycling wood in the sea. Symbiotic bacteria supply enzymes that the organisms need for nutrition and wood degradation. Some of these bacteria have been grown in pure culture and have the capacity to make many secondary metabolites. However, little is known about whether such secondary metabolite pathways are represented in the symbiont communities within their hosts. In addition, little has been reported about the patterns of host-symbiont co-occurrence. Here, we collected shipworms from the United States, the Philippines, and Brazil, and cultivated symbiotic bacteria from their gills. We analyzed sequences from 22 shipworm gill metagenomes from seven shipworm species and from 23 cultivated symbiont isolates. Using (meta)genome sequencing, we demonstrate that the cultivated isolates represent all the major bacterial symbiont species and strains in shipworm gills. We show that the bacterial symbionts are distributed among shipworm hosts in consistent, predictable patterns. The symbiotic bacteria encode many biosynthetic gene cluster families (GCFs) for bioactive secondary metabolites, only <5% of which match previously described biosynthetic pathways. Because we were able to cultivate the symbionts, and sequence their genomes, we can definitively enumerate the biosynthetic pathways in these symbiont communities, showing that [~]150 out of [~]200 total biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) present in the animal gill metagenomes are represented in our culture collection. Shipworm symbionts occur in suites that differ predictably across a wide taxonomic and geographic range of host species, and collectively constitute an immense resource for the discovery of new biosynthetic pathways to bioactive secondary metabolites.

ImportanceWe define a system in which the major symbionts that are important to host biology and to the production of secondary metabolites can be cultivated. We show that symbiotic bacteria that are critical to host nutrition and lifestyle also have an immense capacity to produce a multitude of diverse and likely novel bioactive secondary metabolites that could lead to the discovery of drugs, and that these pathways are found within shipworm gills. We propose that, by shaping associated microbial communities within the host, the compounds support the ability of shipworms to degrade wood in marine environments. Because these symbionts can be cultivated and genetically manipulated, they provide a powerful model for understanding how secondary metabolism impacts microbial symbiosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Altamia, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trindade-Silva, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uy, I. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shipway, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Veras Wilke, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Concepcion, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Distel, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidt, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haygood, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/826933</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Secondary metabolic symbiosis in shipworms (Teredinidae)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/828970v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Disinfection exhibits systematic impacts on the drinking water microbiome. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/828970v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Limiting microbial growth during drinking water distribution is achieved either by maintaining a disinfectant residual or through nutrient limitation without the use of a disinfectant. The impact of these contrasting approaches on the drinking water microbiome is not systematically understood. We utilized genome-resolved metagenomics to compare the structure, metabolic traits, and population genomes of drinking water microbiomes across multiple full-scale drinking water systems utilizing these two-distinct microbial growth control strategies. Microbial communities cluster together at the structural- and functional potential-level based on the presence or absence of a disinfectant residual. Disinfectant residual concentrations alone explained 17 and 6.5% of the variance in structure and functional potential of the drinking water microbiome, respectively, despite including samples from multiple drinking water systems with variable source waters and source water communities, treatment strategies, and chemical compositions. The drinking water microbiome is structurally and functionally less diverse and less variable across disinfected systems as compared to non-disinfected systems. While bacteria were the most abundant domain, archaea and eukaryota were more abundant in non-disinfected and disinfected systems, respectively. Community-level differences in functional potential were driven by enrichment of genes associated with carbon and nitrogen fixation in non-disinfected systems and {gamma}-aminobutyrate metabolism in disinfected systems which may be associated with the recycling of amino acids. Metagenome-assembled genome-level analyses for a subset of phylogenetically related microorganisms suggests that disinfection may select for microorganisms capable of using fatty acids, presumably from microbial decay products, via the glyoxylate cycle. Overall, we find that disinfection exhibits systematic and consistent selective pressures on the drinking water microbiome and may select for microorganisms able to utilize microbial decay products originating from disinfection inactivated microorganisms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sevillano, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calus, S. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bautista-de los Santos, Q. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eren, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van der Wielen, P. W. J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ijaz, U. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/828970</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Disinfection exhibits systematic impacts on the drinking water microbiome.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/829242v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ytterbium-doped fibre femtosecond laser offers robust design with deep and precise microsurgery 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/829242v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Laser microsurgery is a powerful tool for neurobiology used to ablate cells and sever neurites in-vivo. We compare a relatively new laser source to two well-established designs. Rare-earth-doped mode-locked fibre laser that produce high power pulsed radiation recently gained popularity for industrial uses. Such systems are manufactured at high standards of robustness and low maintenance requirements typical of solid-state lasers. We demonstrate that an Ytterbium-doped fibre femtosecond laser is comparable in precision to other femtosecond lasers, but with added reliability. It is more precise and can lesion deeper in tissue than a solid-state nanosecond laser. These advantages are not specific to the model system ablated for our demonstration, namely neurites in the nematode C. elegans, but are applicable to other systems and transparent tissue where a precise submicron resolution dissection is required.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Harreguy, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marfil, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabel, C. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haspel, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/829242</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ytterbium-doped fibre femtosecond laser offers robust design with deep and precise microsurgery]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/847392v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Caenorhabditis elegans PIEZO Channel Coordinates Multiple Reproductive Tissues to Govern Ovulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/847392v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The PIEZO proteins are involved in a wide range of developmental and physiological processes. Human PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 are newly identified excitatory mechano-sensitive proteins; they are non-selective ion channels that exhibit a preference for calcium in response to mechanical stimuli. To further understand the function of these proteins, we investigated the roles of pezo-1, the sole PIEZO ortholog in C. elegans. pezo-1 is expressed throughout development in C. elegans, with strong expression in reproductive tissues. A number of deletion alleles as well as a putative gain-of-function mutant caused severe defects in reproduction. A reduced brood size was observed in the strains depleted of PEZO-1. In vivo observations show that oocytes undergo a variety of transit defects as they enter and exit the spermatheca during ovulation. Post ovulation oocytes were frequently damaged during spermathecal contraction. Calcium signaling in the spermatheca is normal during ovulation in pezo-1 mutants, however, pezo-1 interacts genetically with known regulators of calcium signaling. Lastly, loss of PEZO-1 caused defective sperm navigation after being pushed out of the spermatheca during ovulation. Mating with males rescued these reproductive deficiencies in our pezo-1 mutants. These findings suggest that PEZO-1 may act in different reproductive tissues to promote proper ovulation and fertilization in C. elegans.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bai, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bouffard, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lord, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brugman, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sternberg, P. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golden, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/847392</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Caenorhabditis elegans PIEZO Channel Coordinates Multiple Reproductive Tissues to Govern Ovulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/849463v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Redox signaling modulates Rho activity and tissue contractility in the C. elegans spermatheca 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/849463v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Actomyosin based contractility in smooth muscle and non-muscle cells is regulated by signaling through the small GTPase Rho and by calcium-activated pathways. We use the myoepithelial cells of the Caenorhabditis elegans spermatheca to study the mechanisms of coordinated myosin activation in vivo. Here, we demonstrate that redox signaling regulates RHO-1/Rho activity in this contractile tissue. Exogenous hydrogen peroxide treatment decreases spermathecal contractility by inhibiting RHO-1, which is mediated through a conserved cysteine in its active site (C20). Further, we identify a gradient of oxidation across the spermathecal tissue, which is regulated by the cytosolic superoxide dismutase, SOD-1. SOD-1 functions in the Rho pathway to inhibit RHO-1 through oxidation of C20. Our results suggest that SOD-1 functions to regulate the redox environment and to fine-tune Rho activity across the spermatheca.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kelley, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Henau, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bell, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dansen, T. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-11-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/849463</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Redox signaling modulates Rho activity and tissue contractility in the C. elegans spermatheca]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-11-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/868000v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Compact attractors of an antithetic integral feedback system have a simple structure 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/868000v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Since its introduction by Briat, Gupta and Khammash, the antithetic feedback controller design has attracted considerable attention in both theoretical and experimental systems biology. The case in which the plant is a two-dimensional linear system (making the closed-loop system a nonlinear four-dimensional system) has been analyzed in much detail. This system has a unique equilibrium but, depending on parameters, it may exhibit periodic orbits. An interesting open question is whether other dynamical behaviors, such as chaotic attractors, might be possible for some parameter choices. This note shows that, for any parameter choices, every bounded trajectory satisfies a Poincare-Bendixson property. The analysis is based on the recently introduced notion of k-cooperative dynamical systems. It is shown that the model is a strongly 2-cooperative system, implying that the dynamics in the omega-limit set of any precompact solution is conjugate to the dynamics in a compact invariant subset of a two-dimensional Lipschitz dynamical system, thus precluding chaotic and other strange attractors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Margaliot, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/868000</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Compact attractors of an antithetic integral feedback system have a simple structure]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/868273v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In situ SAXS of protein deposits in Alzheimer's disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/868273v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Deposits of A{beta} peptides (plaques) and tau protein (neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs)) are ubiquitous features of brain tissue in Alzheimers disease. Their contribution to disease etiology remains controversial. The molecular-to-nano-scale organization of fibrillar species in these protein aggregates remains uncertain, but may contain clues as to the contributions of these structures to disease. Whether or not all plaques are the same structure, and all tangles are the same, has implications for current hypotheses about polymorphic templated misfolding of their constituent proteins, A{beta} and tau. Here we use x-ray microdiffraction in the small-angle regime (SAXS) to probe the molecular organization of these deposits. Using unstained histological sections of human brain tissue, we demonstrate that SAXS can characterize A{beta} fibrils and tau filaments in situ. A{beta} fibrils have a cross-sectional radius of gyration (Rxc) of ~45 [A], and larger (Rxc >150 [A]) aggregates appear to represent A{beta} fibrils that have coalesced side-to-side with one another to create fibrillar bundles or macrofibrillar aggregates. Tau fibrils exhibit an Rxc of ~55 [A] with little sign of coalescence into larger structure. The in situ mapping of these structures revealed subtle variation in A{beta} structure across different brain areas and different cases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Makowski, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roig Solvas, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hyman, B. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/868273</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In situ SAXS of protein deposits in Alzheimer's disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/131318v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structure-based analysis of CysZ-mediated cellular uptake of sulfate 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/131318v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sulfur, most abundantly found in the environment as sulfate (SO42-), is an essential element in metabolites required by all living cells, including amino acids, co-factors and vitamins. Current understanding of the cellular delivery of SO42- at the molecular level is limited however. CysZ has been described as a SO42- permease, but its sequence family is without known structural precedent. Based on crystallographic structure information, SO42- binding and uptake experiments in cells and proteoliposomes, and single-channel conductance measurements, we provide insight into the molecular mechanism of CysZ-mediated translocation of SO42- across membranes. CysZ properties differ markedly from those of known transporters and ion channels. The structures display a hitherto unknown fold with dual topology, assembling in CysZ from Pseudomonas denitrificans as a trimer of antiparallel dimers in the membrane. CysZ structures from two other species recapitulate dimers from this assembly. Mutational studies highlight the functional relevance of conserved CysZ residues.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clarke, O. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leal Pinto, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kloss, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tabuso, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Love, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Punta, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Banerjee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajashankar, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rost, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Logothetis, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quick, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hendrickson, W. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mancia, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Assur Sanghai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2017-04-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/131318</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structure-based analysis of CysZ-mediated cellular uptake of sulfate]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2017-04-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.19.105130v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Insights into rumen microbial biosynthetic gene cluster diversity through genome-resolved metagenomics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.19.105130v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ruminants are critical to global food security as they transform lignocellulosic biomass into high-quality protein products. The rumen microbes ferment feed to provide necessary energy and nutrients for the ruminant host. However, we still lack insight into the metabolic processes encoded by most rumen microbial populations. In this study, we implemented metagenomic binning approaches to recover 2,809 microbial genomes from cattle, sheep, moose, deer, and bison. By clustering genomes based on average nucleotide identity, we demonstrate approximately one-third of the metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) to represent species not present in current reference databases and rumen microbial genome collections. Combining these MAGs with other rumen genomic datasets permitted a phylogenomic characterization of the biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) from 8,160 rumen microbial genomes, including the identification of 5,346 diverse gene clusters for nonribosomal peptide biosynthesis. A subset of Prevotella and Selenomonas BGCs had higher expression in steers with lower feed efficiency. Moreover, the microdiversity of BGCs was fairly constant across types of BGCs and cattle breeds. The reconstructed genomes expand the genomic representation of rumen microbial lineages, improve the annotation of multi-omics data, and link microbial populations to the production of secondary metabolites that may constitute a source of natural products for manipulating rumen fermentation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Anderson, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fernando, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-05-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.05.19.105130</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Insights into rumen microbial biosynthetic gene cluster diversity through genome-resolved metagenomics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-05-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.20.423693v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Quantitative Control of Noise in Mammalian Gene Expression by Dynamic Histone Regulations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.20.423693v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Fluctuation ( noise) in gene expression is critical for mammalian cellular processes. Numerous mechanisms contribute to its origins, yet large noises induced by single transcriptional activator species remain to be experimentally understood. Here, we combined the dynamic regulation of transcriptional activator binding, histone regulator inhibitors, and single-cell quantification of chromatin accessibility, mRNA, and protein to probe putative mechanisms. Using a light-induced expression system, we show that the transcriptional activator forms a positive feedback loop with histone acetyltransferases CBP/p300. It generates epigenetic bistability in H3K27ac, which contributes to large noise. Disable of the positive feedback loop by CBP/p300 and HDAC4/5 inhibitors also reduces heterogeneity in endogenous genes, suggesting a universal mechanism. We showed that the noise was reduced by pulse-wide modulation of transcriptional activator binding due to alternating the system between high and low monostable states. Our findings could provide a mechanism-based approach to modulate noise in synthetic and endogenous gene expressions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mo, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2020-12-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2020.12.20.423693</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Quantitative Control of Noise in Mammalian Gene Expression by Dynamic Histone Regulations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2020-12-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.04.424598v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Mechanistic Modeling Framework Reveals the Key Principles Underlying Tumor Metabolism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.04.424598v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While aerobic glycolysis, or the Warburg effect, has for a long time been considered a hallmark of tumor metabolism, recent studies have revealed a far more complex picture. Tumor cells exhibit widespread metabolic heterogeneity, not only in their presentation of the Warburg effect but also in the nutrients and the metabolic pathways they are dependent on. Moreover, tumor cells can switch between different metabolic phenotypes in response to environmental cues and therapeutic interventions. A framework to analyze the observed metabolic heterogeneity and plasticity is, however, lacking. Using a mechanistic model that includes the key metabolic pathways active in tumor cells, we show that the inhibition of phosphofructokinase by excess ATP in the cytoplasm can drive a preference for aerobic glycolysis in fast-proliferating tumor cells. The differing rates of ATP utilization by tumor cells can therefore drive heterogeneity with respect to the presentation of the Warburg effect. Building upon this idea, we couple the metabolic phenotype of tumor cells to their migratory phenotype, and show that our model predictions are in agreement with previous experiments. Next, we report that the reliance of proliferating cells on different anaplerotic pathways depends on the relative availability of glucose and glutamine, and can further drive metabolic heterogeneity. Finally, using treatment of melanoma cells with a BRAF inhibitor as an example, we show that our model can be used to predict the metabolic and gene expression changes in cancer cells in response to drug treatment. By making predictions that are far more generalizable and interpretable as compared to previous tumor metabolism modeling approaches, our framework identifies key principles that govern tumor cell metabolism, and the reported heterogeneity and plasticity. These principles could be key to targeting the metabolic vulnerabilities of cancer.

Author SummaryTumor cells exhibit heterogeneity and plasticity in their metabolic behavior, relying on distinct nutrients and metabolic pathways, and switching to reliance on different pathways when challenged by an environmental change or a drug. While multiple previous studies have focused on identifying metabolic signatures that can distinguish tumor cells from non-tumorigenic ones, frameworks to analyze the metabolic heterogeneity in tumors have been lacking. Here, we present a mechanistic mathematical model of some of the key metabolic pathways active in tumor cells and analyze the steady state behaviors the model can exhibit. We find that the rate of ATP use by tumor cells can be a key determinant of the metabolic pathway via which tumor cells utilize glucose. We further show that tumor cells can utilize different pathways for satisfying the same metabolic requirements, and explore the implications of such behavior for the response of tumor cells to drugs targeting tumor metabolism. At each step, we discuss how our model predictions fit within the context of experimental observations made across tumor types. The present modeling framework represents an important step towards reconciling the wide array of experimental observations concerning tumor metabolism, and towards a more methodical approach to targeting tumors metabolic vulnerabilities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tripathi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pudakalakatti, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhattacharya, P. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaipparettu, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.04.424598</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Mechanistic Modeling Framework Reveals the Key Principles Underlying Tumor Metabolism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.24.427281v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The secreted tyrosine kinase VLK is essential for normal platelet activation and thrombus formation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.24.427281v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tyrosine phosphorylation of extracellular proteins is observed in cell cultures and in vivo, but little is known about the functional roles of tyrosine phosphorylation of extracellular proteins. Vertebrate Lonesome Kinase (VLK) is a broadly expressed secretory pathway tyrosine kinase present in platelet [a]-granules. It is released from platelets upon activation and phosphorylates substrates extracellularly. Its role in platelet function, however, has not been previously studied. In human platelets, we identified phosphorylated tyrosines mapped to luminal or extracellular domains of transmembrane and secreted proteins implicated in the regulation of platelet activation. To determine the role of VLK in extracellular tyrosine phosphorylation and platelet function, we generated mice with a megakaryocyte/platelet-specific deficiency of VLK. Platelets from these mice are normal in abundance and morphology, but have dramatic changes in function both in vitro and in vivo. Resting and thrombin-stimulated VLK-deficient platelets demonstrate a significant decrease of several tyrosine phosphobands. Functional testing of VLK-deficient platelets shows decreased PAR4- and collagen-mediated platelet aggregation, but normal responses to ADP. Dense granule and -granule release are reduced in these platelets. Furthermore, VLK-deficient platelets exhibit decreased PAR4-mediated Akt (S473) and Erk1/2(T202/Y204) phosphorylation, indicating altered proximal signaling. In vivo, mice lacking VLK in megakaryocytes/platelets demonstrate strongly reduced platelet accumulation and fibrin formation following laser-injury of cremaster arterioles compared to controls. These studies demonstrate that the secretory pathway tyrosine kinase VLK is critical for stimulus-dependent platelet activation and thrombus formation, providing the first evidence that a secreted protein kinase is required for normal platelet function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Revollo, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merrill-Skoloff, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Ceunynck, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dilks, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bordoli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peters, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noetzli, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ionescu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosen, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Italiano, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flaumenhaft, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-01-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.01.24.427281</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The secreted tyrosine kinase VLK is essential for normal platelet activation and thrombus formation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-01-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.04.429859v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A theoretical approach to coupling the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness via LOXL2 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.04.429859v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a critical role in cancer progression, being responsible in many cases for the onset of the metastatic cascade and being integral in the ability of cells to resist drug treatment. Most studies of EMT focus on its induction via chemical signals such as TGF-{beta} or Notch ligands, but it has become increasingly clear that biomechanical features of the microenvironment such as ECM (extracellular matrix) stiffness can be equally important. Here, we introduce a coupled feedback loop connecting stiffness to the EMT transcription factor ZEB1, which acts via increasing the secretion of LOXL2 that leads to increased cross-linking of collagen fibers in the ECM. This increased cross-linking can effectively increase ECM stiffness and increase ZEB1 levels, thus setting a positive feedback loop between ZEB1 and ECM stiffness. To investigate the impact of this non-cell-autonomous effect, we introduce a computational approach capable of connecting LOXL2 concentration to increased stiffness and thereby to higher ZEB1 levels. Our results indicate that this positive feedback loop, once activated, can effectively lock the cells in a mesenchymal state.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Deng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakraborty, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-02-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.02.04.429859</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A theoretical approach to coupling the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness via LOXL2]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-02-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.04.433986v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mechanical Interplay Between Transcription Elongation and DNA Supercoiling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.04.433986v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multiple RNA polymerases (RNAPs) transcribing a gene have been known to exhibit collective group behavior, causing the transcription elongation rate to increase with the rate of transcription initiation. Such behavior has long been believed to be driven by a physical interaction or "push" between closely spaced RNAPs. However, recent studies have posited that RNAPs separated by longer distances may cooperate via the DNA segment under transcription. Here, we present a theoretical model incorporating the mechanical coupling between RNAP translocation and the torsional response of supercoiled DNA. Using stochastic simulations, we demonstrate long-range cooperation between co-transcribing RNAPs mediated by DNA supercoiling. We find that inhibiting transcription initiation can slow down the already recruited RNAPs, in agreement with recent experimental observations, and predict that the average transcription elongation rate varies non-monotonically with the rate of transcription initiation. We further show that while RNAPs transcribing neighboring genes oriented in tandem can cooperate, those transcribing genes in divergent or convergent orientations can act antagonistically, and that such behavior holds over a large range of intergenic separations. Our model makes testable predictions, revealing how the mechanical interplay between RNAPs and the DNA they transcribe can govern a key cellular process.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tripathi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brahmachari, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-03-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.03.04.433986</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mechanical Interplay Between Transcription Elongation and DNA Supercoiling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-03-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.26.441465v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Vascular and perivascular cell profiling reveals the molecular and cellular bases of blood-brain barrier heterogeneity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.26.441465v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SUMMARY

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is critical for protecting the brain and maintaining neuronal homeostasis. Although the BBB is a unique feature of the central nervous system (CNS) vasculature, not all brain regions have the same degree of impermeability. Differences in BBB permeability are important for controlling the local extracellular environment of specific brain regions to regulate the function and plasticity of particular neural circuits. However, how BBB heterogeneity occurs is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate how regional specialization of the BBB is achieved. With unbiased cell profiling in small, defined brain regions, we compare the median eminence, which has a naturally leaky BBB, with the cortex, which has an impermeable BBB. We identify hundreds of molecular differences in endothelial cells (ECs) and demonstrate the existence of differences in perivascular astrocytes and pericytes in these regions, finding 3 previously unknown subtypes of astrocytes and several key differences in pericytes. By serial electron microscopy reconstruction and a novel, aqueous-based tissue clearing imaging method, we further reveal previously unknown anatomical specializations of these perivascular cells and their unique physical interactions with neighboring ECs. Finally, we identify ligand-receptor pairs between ECs and perivascular cells that may regulate regional BBB integrity in ECs. Using a bioinformatic approach we identified 26 and 26 ligand-receptor pairs underlying EC-pericyte and EC-astrocyte interactions, respectively. Our results demonstrate that differences in ECs, together with region-specific physical and molecular interactions with local perivascular cells, contribute to BBB functional heterogeneity. These regional cell inventories serve as a platform for further investigation of the dynamic and heterogeneous nature of the BBB in other brain regions. Identification of local BBB specializations provides insight into the function of different brain regions and will permit the development of region-specific drug delivery in the CNS.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pfau, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langen, U. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fisher, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prakash, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nagpurwala, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lozoya, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, W.-C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-04-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.04.26.441465</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Vascular and perivascular cell profiling reveals the molecular and cellular bases of blood-brain barrier heterogeneity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-04-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.10.442867v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High-Stability Polyimide-based Flexible Electrodes with IrOx to Interface the Mouse Vagus Nerve 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.10.442867v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveWe developed robust and cost-effective cuff Flex electrodes to facilitate bioelectronic medicine research in mouse models. They utilize polyimide (PI) as a dielectric insulation and iridium oxide (IrOx) for the electrodes, and are designed to interface small autonomic and somatic nerves (e.g. mouse vagus nerve).

ApproachFlex electrodes were made using micro-fabrication technology, and innovative integration processes were developed to enable reliable acute and chronic vagus nerve interfaces. The electrochemical properties of Flex electrodes were characterized. Moreover, accelerated aging at 57 {degrees}C and stimulation-stability (Stim-Stab) testing (109 pulses at [~] 1.59 mC/cm2/phase) were performed to evaluate the lifetime of the PI encapsulation and IrOx electrodes, respectively. Flex electrodes efficacy was demonstrated by stimulating the mouse vagus nerve ([~]100 {micro}m) and measuring heart and respiratory rate changes as biomarkers.

ResultsCost effective and robust lead and connector integration strategies were demonstrated, including small helical leads that improved the lead elongation by > 7x. PI encapsulation had stable impedance spectra for at least 336 days for interdigitated electrodes. Stim-Stab testing using an aggressive paradigm and rigorous optical and electrical characterization, revealed that half of electrodes showed less than minor damage at the endpoints. A trend of decreasing respiratory rate with stimulation current reached statistical significance at 500 {micro}A, demonstrating efficacy for Flex electrodes.

SignificanceFlex electrodes offer demonstrated efficacy, low impedance (443 {+/-} 32 {Omega} at 103 Hz), excellent bench test stability, and cost-effective fabrication. Acute devices are easy to integrate, and mechanically robust chronic devices will be investigated in vivo in future studies. These characteristics make the electrodes well-positioned to advance bioelectronics medicine research by 1) enabling reliable studies with statistically relevant populations of acute mouse models, and 2) offering the potential for a technology that can be used in chronic studies, which scales to very small nerves.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sun, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Falcone, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crosfield, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peragine, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Modi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savani, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, E. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sohal, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rieth, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.10.442867</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High-Stability Polyimide-based Flexible Electrodes with IrOx to Interface the Mouse Vagus Nerve]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.27.446034v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Protein sensors of bacterial kinase activity reveal antibiotic-dependent kinase activation in single cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.27.446034v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A lack of direct single-cell readouts for bacterial kinase activity remains a major barrier to our understanding of most signaling systems. At the single-cell-level, protein kinase activity is typically inferred by the activity of downstream transcriptional reporters. Complicating this approach in vivo, promoters are often co-regulated by several pathways, making the activity of a specific kinase difficult to deconvolve. Here, we have designed and constructed new, direct and specific sensors of bacterial kinase activity, including FRET-based sensors, as well as a synthetic transcription factor that responds to phosphorylation. We demonstrate the utility of these reporters in measuring kinase activity in population-based and single-cell assays during various growth phases and antibiotic treatments. These sensors respond to a highly conserved bacterial Ser/Thr kinase, PrkC that has no known dedicated transcription factor and whose regulon is known to be convolved with an essential signaling system. We used these new sensors to measure PrkC activity in colonies, bulk culture, and single cells. Together these new sensors provide evidence for considerable heterogeneity in PrkC activity in actively growing populations. We further demonstrate that PrkC activity increases in response to a cell-wall active antibiotic that blocks the late steps in peptidoglycan synthesis (cefotaxime), but not the early steps (fosfomycin). This is consistent with a model where PrkC senses and responds to blocks in the extracellular steps in cell wall synthesis. As the design of these phosphorylation sensors is modular, we anticipate that this work may have broad applications to other bacterial signaling systems in the future.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zheng, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Libby, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Libby, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-05-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.05.27.446034</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Protein sensors of bacterial kinase activity reveal antibiotic-dependent kinase activation in single cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-05-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.19.452977v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Characterization of vaginal microbial enzymes identifies amylopullulanases that support growth of Lactobacillus crispatus on glycogen 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.19.452977v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The healthy human vaginal microbiota is generally dominated by lactobacilli, and the transition to a more diverse community of anaerobic microbes is associated with health risks. Glycogen released by lysed epithelial cells is believed to be an important nutrient source in this environment. However, the mechanism by which vaginal bacteria metabolize glycogen is unclear, with evidence implicating both microbial and human enzymes. Here, we biochemically characterize six glycogen-degrading enzymes (GDEs) from vaginal bacteria that support the growth of amylase-deficient L. crispatus on glycogen. We reveal variations in the pH tolerance and susceptibility to inhibition between enzymes from different organisms. Analysis of vaginal microbiome datasets show these enzymes are expressed in all Community State Types. Finally, we confirm the presence and activity of bacterial GDEs in cervicovaginal fluid. This work establishes that bacterial GDEs can participate in the breakdown of glycogen, providing insight into metabolism that may shape the vaginal microbiota.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Woolston, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hood-Pishchany, M. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rakoff-Nahoum, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balskus, E. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-07-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.07.19.452977</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Characterization of vaginal microbial enzymes identifies amylopullulanases that support growth of Lactobacillus crispatus on glycogen]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-07-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.02.462887v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cell wall synthesis and remodeling dynamics determine bacterial division site architecture and cell shape 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.02.462887v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The bacterial division apparatus builds daughter cell poles by catalyzing the synthesis and remodeling of the septal peptidoglycan (sPG) cell wall. Understanding of this essential process has been limited by the lack of native three-dimensional visualization of developing septa. Here, we used state-of-the-art cryogenic electron tomography (cryo-ET) and fluorescence microscopy to understand the division site architecture and sPG biogenesis dynamics of the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli. Our results with mutant cells altered in the regulation of sPG biogenesis revealed a striking and unexpected similarity between the architecture of E. coli septa with those from Gram-positive bacteria, suggesting a conserved morphogenic mechanism. Furthermore, we found that the cell elongation and division machineries are in competition and that their relative activities determine the shape of cell constrictions and the poles they form. Overall, our results highlight how the activity of the division system can be modulated to generate the diverse array of morphologies observed in the bacterial domain.

HighlightsO_LIThe division site architecture of E. coli can be modulated to resemble that of diverse bacteria.
C_LIO_LICell wall degradation at the division site activates septal cell wall synthesis.
C_LIO_LIAssembly of the cytoskeletal ring at the division site is modulated by cell wall remodeling.
C_LIO_LIBalance between the activities of the elongation and division systems modulates cell shape.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Navarro, P. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vettiger, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ananda, V. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Montero Llopis, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allolio, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bernhardt, T. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chao, L. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2021-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2021.10.02.462887</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cell wall synthesis and remodeling dynamics determine bacterial division site architecture and cell shape]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2021-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.16.480562v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ingestible capsule for detecting labile inflammatory biomarkers in situ 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.16.480562v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transient molecules in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, such as nitric oxide and hydrogen sulfide, are key signals and mediators of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Because these molecules are extremely short-lived in the body, they are difficult to detect. To track these reactive molecules in the GI tract, we have developed a miniaturized device that integrates genetically-engineered probiotic biosensors with a custom-designed photodetector and readout chip. Leveraging the molecular specificity of living sensors, we genetically encoded bacteria to respond to IBD-associated molecules by luminescing. Low-power electronic readout circuits (nanowatt power) integrated into the device convert the light from just 1 L of bacterial culture into a wireless signal. We demonstrate biosensor monitoring in the GI tract of small and large animal models and integration of all components into a sub-1.4 cm3 ingestible form factor capable of supporting wireless communication. The wireless detection of short-lived, disease-associated molecules could support earlier diagnosis of disease than is currently possible, more accurate tracking of disease progression, and more timely communication between patient and their care team supporting remote personalized care.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Inda, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jimenez, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahn, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Steiger, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wentworth, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riaz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zirtiloglu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ishida, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fabian, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuosmanen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Madani, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNally, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lai, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mimee, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nadeau, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chandrakasan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayward, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Traverso, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yazicigil, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, T. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-02-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.02.16.480562</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ingestible capsule for detecting labile inflammatory biomarkers in situ]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-02-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.05.483025v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Discovery of Potent Pyrazoline-Based Covalent SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.05.483025v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While vaccines and antivirals are now being deployed for the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we require additional antiviral therapeutics to not only effectively combat SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, but also future coronaviruses. All coronaviruses have relatively similar genomes that provide a potential exploitable opening to develop antiviral therapies that will be effective against all coronaviruses. Among the various genes and proteins encoded by all coronaviruses, one particularly "druggable" or relatively easy-to-drug target is the coronavirus Main Protease (3CLpro or Mpro), an enzyme that is involved in cleaving a long peptide translated by the viral genome into its individual protein components that are then assembled into the virus to enable viral replication in the cell. Inhibiting Mpro with a small-molecule antiviral would effectively stop the ability of the virus to replicate, providing therapeutic benefit. In this study, we have utilized activity-based protein profiling (ABPP)-based chemoproteomic approaches to discover and further optimize cysteine-reactive pyrazoline-based covalent inhibitors for the SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. Structure-guided medicinal chemistry and modular synthesis of di- and tri-substituted pyrazolines bearing either chloroacetamide or vinyl sulfonamide cysteine-reactive warheads enabled the expedient exploration of structure-activity relationships (SAR), yielding nanomolar potency inhibitors against Mpro from not only SARS-CoV-2, but across many other coronaviruses. Our studies highlight promising chemical scaffolds that may contribute to future pan-coronavirus inhibitors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moon, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boike, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dovala, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henning, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knapp, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spradlin, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ward, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wolleb, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zammit, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuller, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blake, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murphy, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moquin, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tandeske, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hesse, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McKenna, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tallarico, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schirle, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Toste, F. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nomura, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-03-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.03.05.483025</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Discovery of Potent Pyrazoline-Based Covalent SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-03-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.05.487090v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mind the gap: Nodes of Ranvier are remodeled by chronic psychosocial stress and neuronal activity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.04.05.487090v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Differential expression of myelin-related genes and changes in myelin thickness have been demonstrated in mice after chronic psychosocial stress, a risk factor for anxiety disorders. To determine whether and how stress affects structural remodeling of nodes of Ranvier, another form of myelin plasticity, we developed a 3D reconstruction analysis of node morphology in C57BL/6NCrl and DBA/2NCrl mice. We identified strain-dependent effects of chronic stress on node morphology, including elongation of paranodes in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in DBA/2NCrl mice. Furthermore, chronic chemogenetic activation of the ventral hippocampus-to-mPFC pathway resulted in increased risk assessment behavior and shortened paranodes specifically in stimulated axons, providing a direct link between anxiety-like behavior and remodeling of the nodes. Altogether, our data demonstrate genetic regulation of nodal remodeling in stress and suggest an activity-dependent regulation of paranodes in anxiety-related circuits. Nodal remodeling may thus contribute to the aberrant circuit function associated with anxiety disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Koskinen, M.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laine, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abdollahzadeh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gigliotta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazzini, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Journee, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alenius, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trontti, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tohka, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hyytia, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sierra, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hovatta, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-04-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.04.05.487090</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mind the gap: Nodes of Ranvier are remodeled by chronic psychosocial stress and neuronal activity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-04-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.04.490694v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Huntingtin turnover: Modulation of huntingtin degradation by cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylation of C-HEAT domain Ser2550 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.04.490694v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Huntingtons disease (HD) is a neurodegerative disorder caused by an inherited unstable HTT CAG repeat that expands further, thereby eliciting a disease process that may be initiated by polyglutamine-expanded huntingtin or a short polyglutamine-product. Phosphorylation of selected candidate residues is reported to mediate polyglutamine-fragment degradation and toxicity. Here to support the discovery of phospho-sites involved in the life-cycle of (full-length) huntingtin, we employed mass spectrometry-based phosphoproteomics to systematically identify sites in purified huntingtin and in the endogenous protein, by proteomic and phospho-proteomic analyses of members of an HD neuronal progenitor cell panel. Our results bring total huntingtin phospho-sites to 95, with more located in the N-HEAT domain relative to numbers in the Bridge and C-HEAT domains. Moreover, phosphorylation of C-HEAT Ser2550 by cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA), the top hit in kinase activity screens, was found to hasten huntingtin degradation, such that levels of the catalytic subunit (PRKACA) were inversely related to huntingtin levels. Taken together these findings highlight categories of phospho-sites that merit further study and provide a phospho-site kinase pair (pSer2550-PKA) with which to investigate the biological processes that regulate huntingtin degradation and thereby influence the steady state levels of huntingtin in HD cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lee, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barker, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vijayvargia, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atwal, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keshishian, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carr, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kwak, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hyun, K.-g.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loupe, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MacDonald, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, J.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seong, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.04.490694</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Huntingtin turnover: Modulation of huntingtin degradation by cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) phosphorylation of C-HEAT domain Ser2550]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.25.493479v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Broad Recognition of Mamu-Bw4 and -A-related MHC class I Ligands by Rhesus Macaque Killer-Cell Immunoglobulin-Like Receptors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.25.493479v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Definition of MHC class I ligands of rhesus macaque KIRs is fundamental to NK cell biology in this species as an animal model for infectious diseases, reproductive biology, and transplantation. To provide a more complete foundation for studying NK cell responses, rhesus macaque KIRs representing common allotypes of lineage II KIR genes were tested for interactions with MHC class I molecules representing diverse Mamu-A, -B, -E, -F, -I and -AG alleles. KIR-MHC class I interactions were identified by co-incubating reporter cell lines bearing chimeric KIR-CD3{zeta} receptors with target cells expressing individual MHC class I molecules and were corroborated by staining with KIR IgG-Fc fusion proteins. Ligands for 11 KIRs of previously unknown specificity were identified that fell into two general categories: interactions with multiple Mamu-Bw4 molecules or with Mamu-A-related molecules, including several allotypes of Mamu-AG and the hybrid Mamu-B*045:03 molecule. Although both groups include inhibitory and activating receptors, the majority of KIRs found to interact with Mamu-Bw4 are inhibitory, whereas most of the KIRs that interact with Mamu-AG are activating. We also identified Mamu-A1*012:01 as a ligand for KIR3DLw03*002, which belongs to a phylogenetically distinct group of macaque KIRs with a three amino acid deletion in D0 that is also present in human KIR3DL1/S1 and KIR3DL2. This study more than doubles the number of rhesus macaque KIRs with defined MHC class I ligands and identifies novel interactions with Mamu-AG, -B*045, and -A1*012. These findings support overlapping, but nonredundant, patterns of ligand recognition that reflects extensive functional diversification of these receptors.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Anderson, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sandstrom, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nicholas, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, W. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wetzel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klenchin, V. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evans, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-05-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.05.25.493479</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Broad Recognition of Mamu-Bw4 and -A-related MHC class I Ligands by Rhesus Macaque Killer-Cell Immunoglobulin-Like Receptors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-05-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.494383v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Prefrontal cortex melanocortin 4 receptors (MC4R) mediate food intake behavior in mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.01.494383v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundMelanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) activity in the hypothalamus is crucial for regulation of metabolism and food intake. The peptide ligands for the MC4R are associated with feeding, energy expenditure, and also with complex behaviors that orchestrate energy intake and expenditure, but the downstream neuroanatomical and neurochemical targets associated with these behaviors are elusive. In addition to strong expression in the hypothalamus, the MC4R is highly expressed in the medial prefrontal cortex, a region involved in executive function and decision-making.

MethodsUsing viral techniques in genetically modified mice combined with molecular techniques, we identify and describe the neuronal dynamics, and define the effects on feeding behavior of a novel population of MC4R expressing neurons in the infralimbic region of the cortex.

ResultsHere, we describe a novel population of MC4R-expressing neurons in the infralimbic (IL) region of the mouse prefrontal cortex that are glutamatergic, receive input from melanocortinergic neurons of the arcuate hypothalamus, and project to multiple regions that coordinate appetitive responses to food-related stimuli. The neurons are depolarized by application of MC4R-specific peptidergic agonist, THIQ. Deletion of MC4R from the IL neurons causes increased food intake and body weight gain and impaired executive function in simple food-related behavior tasks.

ConclusionTogether, these data suggest that MC4R neurons of the IL play a critical role in the regulation of food intake.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ross, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Das, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, Y. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thompson, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Douglas, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Subramanian, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramos, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Callahan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bolshakov, V. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ressler, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-06-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.06.01.494383</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Prefrontal cortex melanocortin 4 receptors (MC4R) mediate food intake behavior in mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-06-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.02.502548v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Decoding the coupled decision-making of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metabolic reprogramming in cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.02.502548v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cancer metastasis relies on an orchestration of multiple traits driven by different functional interacting modules including metabolism and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Cancer cells can adjust their metabolism during metastasis by increasing oxidative phosphorylation without compromising glycolysis, acquiring a hybrid metabolic phenotype (W/O). Often required by metastasis, cancer cells engage EMT and can acquire a hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal (E/M) phenotype. Both the W/O and E/M states are associated with high metastatic potentials. Many regulatory links coupling metabolism and EMT have been identified, but how these two modules regulate each other remains largely unexplored. Here, we investigate the coupled decision-making networks of metabolism and EMT, and systematically analyzed the effect of their crosstalk. This crosstalk can exhibits synergistic or antagonistic effects on the acquisition and stability of different coupled metabolism-EMT states. Strikingly, the aggressive E/M-W/O state can be enabled and stabilized by the crosstalk irrespective of these hybrid states availability in individual metabolism or EMT modules. To acquire an E/M-W/O state, the W/O state emerges first, followed by the E/M state, suggesting metabolism can drive EMT. Our work emphasizes the mutual activation between metabolism and EMT, providing an important step towards understanding the multi-faceted nature of cancer metastasis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Galbraith, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jia, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-08-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.08.02.502548</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Decoding the coupled decision-making of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metabolic reprogramming in cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-08-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.29.510150v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Proteomic Mapping of Intercellular Synaptic Environments via Flavin-Dependent Photoredox Catalysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.29.510150v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Receptor-ligand interactions play essential signaling roles within intercellular contact regions. This is particularly important within the context of the immune synapse where protein communication at the surface of physically interacting T cells and antigen-presenting cells regulate downstream immune signaling responses. To identify protein microenvironments within immunological synapses, we combined a flavin-dependent photocatalytic labeling strategy with quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics. Using -PD-L1 or -PD-1 single-domain antibody (VHH)-based photocatalyst targeting modalities, we profiled protein microenvironments within the intercellular region of an immune synapse-forming co-culture system. In addition to enrichment of both PD-L1 and PD-1 with either targeting modality, we also observed enrichment of both known immune synapse residing receptor-ligand pairs and surface proteins, as well as previously unknown synapse residing proteins.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bechtel, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bertoch, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Olow, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duich, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>White, C. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reyes-Robles, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fadeyi, O. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oslund, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-09-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.09.29.510150</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Proteomic Mapping of Intercellular Synaptic Environments via Flavin-Dependent Photoredox Catalysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-09-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.24.517565v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An international scholastic network to generate LexA enhancer-trap lines for Drosophila 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.24.517565v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Conditional gene regulation in Drosophila through binary expression systems like the LexA-LexAop system provides a superb tool for investigating gene and tissue function. To increase the availability of defined LexA enhancer trap insertions, we present molecular, genetic and tissue expression studies of 301 novel Stan-X LexA enhancer traps derived from mobilization of the index SX4 line. This includes insertions into distinct loci on the X, II and III chromosomes that were not previously associated with enhancer traps or targeted LexA constructs, an insertion into ptc, and eleven insertions into natural transposons. A subset of enhancer traps was expressed in CNS neurons known to produce and secrete insulin, an essential regulator of growth, development and metabolism. Fly lines described here were generated and characterized through studies by students and teachers in an international network of genetics classes at public, independent high schools, and universities serving a diversity of students, including those underrepresented in science. Thus, a unique partnership between secondary schools and university-based programs has produced and characterized novel resources in Drosophila, establishing instructional paradigms devoted to unscripted experimental science.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gulick, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>English, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakada, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beard, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Connor, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mastroianni, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Downey, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feigenbaum, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolentino, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pace, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moon, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DiPrima, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Syed, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Govindarajan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abukhadra, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bacon, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beckerle, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloomfield, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cho, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esi Donkor, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garberg, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrington, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lawani, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noori, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parsons, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oravitan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Molina, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richmond, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reddi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shugrue, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coviello, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Unver, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Indelicarto, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Islamovic, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McIlroy, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamad, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffin, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmed, Z</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.24.517565</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An international scholastic network to generate LexA enhancer-trap lines for Drosophila]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.27.518103v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DRG afferents that mediate physiologic and pathologic mechanosensation from the distal colon 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.27.518103v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The properties of dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons that innervate the distal colon are poorly defined, hindering our understanding of their roles in normal physiology and gastrointestinal disease. Here, we report genetically defined subsets of colon innervating DRG neurons with diverse morphologic and physiologic properties. Four colon innervating DRG neuron populations are mechanosensitive and exhibit distinct force thresholds to colon distension. The highest threshold population, selectively labeled using Bmpr1b genetic tools, is necessary and sufficient for behavioral responses to high colon distension, which is partly mediated by the mechanosensory ion channel Piezo2. This HTMR population mediates behavioral over-reactivity to colon distension caused by inflammation in a model of inflammatory bowel disease. Thus, like cutaneous mechanoreceptor populations, colon innervating DRG afferents exhibit distinct anatomical and physiological properties and tile force threshold space, and genetically defined colon innervating HTMRs mediate pathophysiological responses to colon distension revealing a target population for therapeutic intervention.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wolfson, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abdelaziz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rankin, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kushner, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mazor, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ginty, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2022-11-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2022.11.27.518103</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DRG afferents that mediate physiologic and pathologic mechanosensation from the distal colon]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2022-11-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.27.525939v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Social Isolation Causes Cortical and Trabecular Bone Loss in Adult Male, but not Female, C57BL/6J Mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.27.525939v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Social isolation is a potent form of psychosocial stress and is a growing public health concern, particularly among older adults. Even prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly increased the prevalence of isolation and loneliness, researchers have been concerned about a rising "epidemic" of loneliness. Isolation is associated with an increased risk for many physical and mental health disorders and increased overall mortality risk. In addition to social isolation, older adults are also at greater risk for osteoporosis and related fractures. While researchers have investigated the negative effects of other forms of psychosocial stress on bone, including depression and PTSD, the effects of social isolation on bone have not been thoroughly investigated. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that social isolation would lead to bone loss in male and female C57BL/6J mice. 16-week-old mice were randomized into social isolation (1 mouse/cage) or grouped housing (4 mice/cage) for four weeks (N=16/group). Social isolation significantly decreased trabecular (BV/TV, BMD, Tb. N., Tb. Th.) and cortical bone (Ct.Th., Ct.Ar., Ct.Ar./Tt.Ar., pMOI, Ct.Por.) parameters in male, but not female mice. Isolated male mice had signs of reduced bone remodeling represented by reduced osteoblast numbers, osteoblast-related gene expression and osteoclast-related gene expression. However, isolated females had increased bone resorption-related gene expression, without any change in bone mass. Overall, our data suggest that social isolation has negative effects on bone in males, but not females, although females showed suggestive effects on bone resorption. These results provide critical insight into the effects of isolation on bone and have key clinical implications as we grapple with the long-term health impacts of the rise in social isolation related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mountain, R. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langlais, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baron, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lary, C. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Motyl, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-01-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.01.27.525939</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Social Isolation Causes Cortical and Trabecular Bone Loss in Adult Male, but not Female, C57BL/6J Mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-01-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.20.529270v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Hypoxia-inducible factor 2 is a key determinant of manganese excess and polycythemia in SLC30A10 deficiency 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.20.529270v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Manganese is an essential yet potentially toxic metal. Initially reported in 2012, mutations in SLC30A10 are the first known inherited cause of manganese excess. SLC30A10 is an apical membrane transport protein that exports manganese from hepatocytes into bile and from enterocytes into the lumen of the gastrointestinal tract. SLC30A10 deficiency results in impaired gastrointestinal manganese excretion, leading to severe manganese excess, neurologic deficits, liver cirrhosis, polycythemia, and erythropoietin excess. Neurologic and liver disease are attributed to manganese toxicity. Polycythemia is attributed to erythropoietin excess, but the basis of erythropoietin excess in SLC30A10 deficiency has yet to be established. Here we demonstrate that erythropoietin expression is increased in liver but decreased in kidneys in Slc30a10-deficient mice. Using pharmacologic and genetic approaches, we show that liver expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 2 (Hif2), a transcription factor that mediates the cellular response to hypoxia, is essential for erythropoietin excess and polycythemia in Slc30a10-deficient mice, while hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF1) plays no discernible role. RNA-seq analysis determined that Slc30a10-deficient livers exhibit aberrant expression of a large number of genes, most of which align with cell cycle and metabolic processes, while hepatic Hif2 deficiency attenuates differential expression of half of these genes in mutant mice. One such gene downregulated in Slc30a10-deficient mice in a Hif2-dependent manner is hepcidin, a hormonal inhibitor of dietary iron absorption. Our analyses indicate that hepcidin downregulation serves to increase iron absorption to meet the demands of erythropoiesis driven by erythropoietin excess. Finally, we also observed that hepatic Hif2 deficiency attenuates tissue manganese excess, although the underlying cause of this observation is not clear at this time. Overall, our results indicate that HIF2 is a key determinant of pathophysiology in SLC30A10 deficiency.

Graphical abstract

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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Prajapati, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mercadante, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kowalski, H. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Delaney, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aghajan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartnikas, T. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.20.529270</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hypoxia-inducible factor 2 is a key determinant of manganese excess and polycythemia in SLC30A10 deficiency]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.27.530270v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identification of a pharmaceutical biostasis inducer that slows metabolism in multiple vertebrates that do not hibernate 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.27.530270v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Drugs that induce reversible slowing of metabolic and physiological processes would have great value for organ preservation, especially for organs with high susceptibility to hypoxia-reperfusion injury, such as the heart. Using whole-organism screening of metabolism, mobility, and development in Xenopus, we identified an existing drug, SNC80, that rapidly and reversibly slows biochemical and metabolic activities while preserving cell and tissue viability. Although SNC80 was developed as a delta opioid receptor activator, we discovered that its ability to slow metabolism is independent of its opioid modulating activity as a novel SNC80 analog (WB3) with almost 1,000 times less delta opioid receptor binding activity is equally active. Metabolic suppression was also achieved using SNC80 in microfluidic human organs-on-chips, as well as in explanted whole porcine hearts and limbs, demonstrating the cross-species relevance of this approach and potential clinical relevance for surgical transplantation. Pharmacological induction of physiological slowing in combination with organ perfusion transport systems may offer a new therapeutic approach for tissue and organ preservation for transplantation, trauma management, and enhancing patient survival in remote and low-resource locations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sperry, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Charrez, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fotowat, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gardner, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pilobello, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Izadifar, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuelker, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaki, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewandowski, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lightbown, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martinez, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marquez, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sesay, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shcherbina, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takeda, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andrijauskaite, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cisneros, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cano, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maxwell, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Veraza, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bunegin, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Percival, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yracheta, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pena, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wood, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Homas, Z. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinshaw, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cox-Hinshaw, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parry, O. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sleeter, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weitzel, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Super, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Novak, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ingber, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-02-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.02.27.530270</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identification of a pharmaceutical biostasis inducer that slows metabolism in multiple vertebrates that do not hibernate]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-02-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.12.532282v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dual role of CASP8AP2/FLASH in regulating epithelial-to-mesenchymal (EMT) plasticity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.12.532282v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Metastasis consists of sequential steps initiated by cancer cells invading from the primary tumor site into neighboring tissues, followed by entry into the circulatory system and completed by extravasation and growth in distal organs where secondary tumors are formed. Circulating tumor cells, thus, encounter and adapt to multiple environmental changes during their transition from the primary to the secondary tumor sites. Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a developmental program that consists of loss of epithelial features concomitant with acquisition of mesenchymal features. Activation of EMT in cancer facilitates acquisition of aggressive traits and cancer invasion. EMT plasticity (EMP), the dynamic transition between multiple hybrid states in which cancer cells display both epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypes, confers survival advantages for cancer cells in the constantly changing environment. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating intermediate phenotypic states along the E-M spectrum is critical. Core EMT transcription factors (EMT-TFs), ZEB, SNAI and TWIST families, play an important role in EMT and its plasticity. In the present study we characterize FLASH as a regulator of EMP and multiple EMT-TFs. We demonstrate that loss of FLASH gives rise to a hybrid E/M phenotype with high epithelial scores even in the presence of TGF{beta}, as determined by computational methods using expression of predetermined sets of epithelial and mesenchymal genes. We demonstrate that FLASH is regulating expression of multiple cell junction proteins with an established role in cancer progression and that its role in EMT is independent of its histone biogenesis role. Further, we show that FLASH expression in cancer lines is inversely correlated with the epithelial score, consistent with its function as a repressor of the epithelial phenotype. Nonetheless, activation of a distinct set of mesenchymal markers concomitant with epithelial markers reveals the complex role of FLASH in EMT and indicates that intermediate E/M states could arise from opposing control by FLASH on different families of EMT-TFs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Catalanotto, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaz, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abshire, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Youngblood, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dragoi, A.-M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.12.532282</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dual role of CASP8AP2/FLASH in regulating epithelial-to-mesenchymal (EMT) plasticity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.13.528447v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
FRESH™ 3D bioprinted cardiac tissue, a bioengineered platform for in-vitro toxicology and pharmacology 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.13.528447v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
There is critical need for a predictive model of human cardiac physiology in the drug development process for assessment of compound toxicology and pharmacology. In vitro two-dimensional monolayer culture of cardiomyocytes provides biochemical and cellular readouts, and in vivo small and large animal models provide information on systemic cardiovascular response. However, there remains a significant gap in these models due to an incomplete recapitulation of adult human cardiovascular physiology, which results in more difficult safety interpretations. Recent efforts in developing in vitro models from engineered heart tissues have demonstrated potential for bridging this gap using human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CM) in a three-dimensional tissue structure. Here we advance this paradigm by implementing FRESH 3D bioprinting to build human cardiac tissues in a medium throughput, well-plate format with controlled tissue architecture, tailored cellular composition, and native-like physiological function, specifically in its adrenergic agonist drug response. To do this, we combined hiPSC-CMs, endothelial cells and fibroblasts in a cellular bioink and FRESH 3D bioprinted this mixture in the format of a thin tissue strip stabilized on a tissue fixture. Our results confirmed that FRESH 3D bioprinted cardiac tissues could be fabricated directly in a 24-well plate format, were composed of dense and highly aligned hiPSC-CMs at >600 million cells/mL, and within 14 days demonstrated reproducible calcium transients and fast conduction velocity of [~]25 cm/s. Interrogation of these cardiac tissues with the {beta}-adrenergic receptor agonist isoproterenol showed native-like positive chronotropic and inotropic responses, a combination of responses that is not typically observed in 2D monolayer models or standard 3D engineered heart tissue approaches. These results confirm that FRESH 3D bioprinted cardiac tissues represents a novel in vitro platform that enables early in vitro pharmacology and toxicology screening.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Finkel, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sweet, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Locke, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sandini, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Imredy, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durante, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lagrutta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feinberg, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.13.528447</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[FRESH™ 3D bioprinted cardiac tissue, a bioengineered platform for in-vitro toxicology and pharmacology]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.17.532214v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Perirhinal Cortex Learns A Predictive Map of The Task Environment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.17.532214v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Goal-directed tasks involve acquiring an internal model, known as a predictive map, of relevant stimuli and associated outcomes to guide behavior. Here, we identified neural signatures of a predictive map of task behavior in perirhinal cortex (Prh). Mice learned to perform a tactile working memory task by classifying sequential whisker stimuli over multiple training stages. Chemogenetic inactivation demonstrated that Prh is involved in task learning. Chronic two-photon calcium imaging, population analysis, and computational modeling revealed that Prh encodes stimulus features as sensory prediction errors. Prh forms stable stimulus-outcome associations that expand in a retrospective manner and generalize as animals learn new contingencies. Stimulus-outcome associations are linked to prospective network activity encoding possible expected outcomes. This link is mediated by cholinergic signaling to guide task performance, demonstrated by acetylcholine imaging and perturbation. We propose that Prh combines error-driven and map-like properties to acquire a predictive map of learned task behavior.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lee, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McLachlan, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nogueira, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kwon, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carey, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>House, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lagani, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LaMay, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fusi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.17.532214</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Perirhinal Cortex Learns A Predictive Map of The Task Environment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.19.532819v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Organization and replicon interactions within the highly segmented genome of Borrelia burgdorferi 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.03.19.532819v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Borrelia burgdorferi, a causative agent of Lyme disease, contains the most segmented bacterial genome known to date, with one linear chromosome and over twenty plasmids. How this unusually complex genome is organized, and whether and how the different replicons interact are unclear. We recently demonstrated that B. burgdorferi is polyploid and that the copies of the chromosome and plasmids are regularly spaced in each cell, which is critical for faithful segregation of the genome to daughter cells. Regular spacing of the chromosome is controlled by two separate partitioning systems that involve the protein pairs ParA/ParZ and ParB/SMC. Here, using chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C), we characterized the organization of the B. burgdorferi genome and the interactions between the replicons. We uncovered that although the linear chromosome lacks contacts between the two replication arms, the two telomeres are in frequent contact. Moreover, several plasmids specifically interact with the chromosome oriC region, and a subset of plasmids interact with each other more than with others. We found that SMC and the SMC-like MksB protein mediate long-range interactions on the chromosome, but they minimally affect plasmid-chromosome or plasmid-plasmid interactions. Finally, we found that disruption of the two partition systems leads to chromosome restructuring, correlating with the mis-positioning of chromosome oriC. Altogether, this study revealed the conformation of a complex genome and analyzed the contribution of the partition systems and SMC family proteins to this organization. This work expands the understanding of the organization and maintenance of multipartite bacterial genomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ren, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takacs, C. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brandao, H. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobs-Wagner, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-03-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.03.19.532819</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Organization and replicon interactions within the highly segmented genome of Borrelia burgdorferi]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-03-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.05.539611v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SKOOTS: Skeleton oriented object segmentation for mitochondria 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.05.539611v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Segmenting individual instances of mitochondria from imaging datasets can provide rich quantitative information, but is prohibitively time-consuming when done manually, prompting interest in the development of automated algorithms using deep neural networks. Existing solutions for various segmentation tasks are optimized for either: high-resolution three-dimensional imaging, relying on well-defined object boundaries (e.g., whole neuron segmentation in volumetric electron microscopy datasets); or low-resolution two-dimensional imaging, boundary-invariant but poorly suited to large 3D objects (e.g., whole-cell segmentation of light microscopy images). Mitochondria in whole-cell 3D electron microscopy datasets often lie in the middle ground--large, yet with ambiguous borders, challenging current segmentation tools. To address this, we developed skeleton-oriented object segmentation (SKOOTS)--a novel approach that efficiently segments large, densely packed mitochondria. SKOOTS accurately and efficiently segments mitochondria in previously difficult contexts and can also be applied to segment other objects in 3D light microscopy datasets. This approach bridges a critical gap between existing segmentation approaches, improving the utility of automated analysis of three-dimensional biomedical imaging data. We demonstrate the utility of SKOOTS by applying it to segment over 15,000 cochlear hair cell mitochondria across experimental conditions in under 2 hours on a consumer-grade PC, enabling downstream morphological analysis that revealed subtle structural changes following aminoglycoside exposure--differences not detectable using analysis approaches currently used in the field.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Buswinka, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nitta, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Osgood, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Indzhykulian, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.05.539611</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SKOOTS: Skeleton oriented object segmentation for mitochondria]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.13.540652v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Skp1 proteins are structural components of the synaptonemal complex in C. elegans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.13.540652v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The synaptonemal complex (SC) is a hallmark of meiotic prophase that plays a crucial role in regulating crossovers between homologous chromosomes. Here, we demonstrate that two Skp1-related proteins in C. elegans, SKR-1 and SKR-2, serve as structural components of the SC, independent of their canonical functions within the Skp1-Cul1-F-box (SCF) ubiquitin ligase complex. SKR-1 and SKR-2 localize to the central region of the SC, and synapsis requires their dimerization through a hydrophobic interface that overlaps with the binding sites for CUL-1 and F-box proteins. Using in vitro reconstitution and in vivo analysis of mutant proteins, we show that SKR proteins interact with the other SC proteins using their C-terminal helices to form a soluble complex, which likely represents a basic building block for SC assembly. Our findings demonstrate how conserved Skp1 proteins are repurposed as part of the SC and may provide insight into how synapsis is coupled to cell cycle progression.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Blundon, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cesar, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bae, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cavka, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haversat, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ries, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koehler, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.13.540652</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Skp1 proteins are structural components of the synaptonemal complex in C. elegans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.16.541013v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Chronic stress triggers seeking of a starvation-like state in anxiety-prone female mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.16.541013v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Elevated anxiety often precedes anorexia nervosa and persists after weight restoration. Patients with anorexia nervosa often describe hunger as pleasant, potentially because food restriction can be anxiolytic. Here, we tested whether chronic stress can cause animals to prefer a starvation-like state. We developed a virtual reality place preference paradigm in which head-fixed mice can voluntarily seek a starvation-like state induced by optogenetic stimulation of hypothalamic agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons. Prior to stress induction, male but not female mice showed mild aversion to AgRP stimulation. Strikingly, following chronic stress, a subset of females developed a strong preference for AgRP stimulation that was predicted by high baseline anxiety. Such stress-induced changes in preference were reflected in changes in facial expressions during AgRP stimulation. Our study suggests that stress may cause females predisposed to anxiety to seek a starvation state, and provides a powerful experimental framework for investigating the underlying neural mechanisms.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kucukdereli, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pottala, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amsalem, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lim, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Potgieter, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hasbrouck, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lutas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andermann, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.16.541013</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Chronic stress triggers seeking of a starvation-like state in anxiety-prone female mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.26.542311v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sorgoleone degradation by sorghum-associated bacteria; an opportunity for enforcing plant growth promotion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.26.542311v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Metabolite exchange between plant roots and their associated rhizosphere microbiomes underpins plant growth promotion by microbes. Sorghum bicolor is a cereal crop that feeds animals and humans and is used for bioethanol production. Its root tips exude large amounts of a lipophilic benzoquinone called sorgoleone. Sorgoleone is an allelochemical that suppresses the growth of competing plant seedlings and is mineralized by microbes in soil. As an avenue to understand how sorghum and its root microbiome may be connected through root exudates, we identified the molecular determinants of microbial sorgoleone degradation and the distribution of this trait among microbes. We isolated and studied from sorghum-associated soils, three bacterial strains classified as Acinetobacter, Burkholderia, and Pseudomonas species that grow with sorgoleone as a sole carbon and energy source. The genomes of these strains were sequenced and subjected to transcriptomic and gene fitness analyses to identify candidate sorgoleone degradation genes. Follow up mutational analysis showed that sorgoleone catabolism is dependent on four contiguous genes that are conserved among the species we sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis of the sorgoleone degradation gene cluster showed that sorgoleone catabolism is enriched in sorghum-associated Streptomyces strains. The discovery of bacteria that grow on a compound like sorgoleone that is plant specific and not widely distributed in the environment, provides an opportunity to study how a plant exudate can enforce the development of a rhizosphere specific microbiome for the mutual benefit of plant and microbe.

SignificanceThe grain crop sorghum exudes an herbicidal compound called sorgoleone from its root tips, which inhibits the growth of other plants. We isolated bacteria that grow on sorogleone and identified a cluster of bacterial genes required for sorogleone degradation that can be used as a biomarker for this trait. An approach to improve the production of crops in stressful conditions such as drought, is to encourage their association with plant growth promoting bacteria. Our discovery of sorgoleone degradation genes opens the door to engineering bacteria that receive benefit from sorghum in the form of a plant-specific growth substrate, and in return promote the growth of this crop.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Oda, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elmore, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nelson, W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farris, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shrestha, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pettinga, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ogden, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baldino, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alexander, W. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deutschbauer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hurtado, C. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDermott, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guss, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coleman-Derr, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McClure, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harwood, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Egbert, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-05-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.05.26.542311</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sorgoleone degradation by sorghum-associated bacteria; an opportunity for enforcing plant growth promotion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-05-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.05.543406v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrative Multi-omic Profiling of Two Human Decedents Receiving Pig Heart Xenografts Reveals Strong Perturbations in Early Immune-Cell and Cellular Metabolism Responses. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.05.543406v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundRecent advances in xenotransplantation in living and decedent humans using pig xenografts have laid promising groundwork towards future emergency use and first in human trials. Major obstacles remain though, including a lack of knowledge of the genetic incompatibilities between pig donors and human recipients which may led to harmful immune responses against the xenograft or dysregulation of normal physiology. In 2022 two pig heart xenografts were transplanted into two brain-dead human decedents with a minimized immunosuppression regime, primarily to evaluate onset of hyper-acute antibody mediated rejection and sustained xenograft function over 3 days.

MethodsWe performed multi-omic profiling to assess the dynamic interactions between the pig and human genomes in the first two pig heart-xenografts transplants into human decedents. To assess global and specific biological changes that may correlate with immune-related outcomes and xenograft function, we generated transcriptomic, lipidomic, proteomic and metabolomics datasets, across blood and tissue samples collected every 6 hours over the 3-day procedures.

ResultsSingle-cell datasets in the 3-day pig xenograft-decedent models show dynamic immune activation processes. We observe specific scRNA-seq, snRNA-seq and geospatial transcriptomic changes of early immune-activation leading to pronounced downstream T-cell activity and hallmarks of early antibody mediated rejection (AbMR) and/or ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) in the first xenograft recipient. Using longitudinal multiomic integrative analyses from blood in addition to antigen presentation pathway enrichment, we also observe in the first xeno-heart recipient significant cellular metabolism and liver damage pathway changes that correlate with profound physiological dysfunction whereas, these signals are not present in the other xenograft recipient.

ConclusionsSingle-cell and multiomics approaches reveal fundamental insights into early molecular immune responses indicative of IRI and/or early AbMR in the first human decedent, which was not evident in the conventional histological evaluations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schmauch, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Piening, B. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xia, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stern, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dowdell, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loza, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohebnasab, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gragert, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khalil, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camellato, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Oliveira, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Brien, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weldon, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kagermazova, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loupy, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heguy, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taylor, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gandla, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reddy, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michael, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jian, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Narula, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Linna-Kuosmanen, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaikkonen-Maatta, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lorber, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kellis, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tatapudi, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayares, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griesemer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mangiola, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pass, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snyder, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boeke, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Montgomery, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keating, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.05.543406</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrative Multi-omic Profiling of Two Human Decedents Receiving Pig Heart Xenografts Reveals Strong Perturbations in Early Immune-Cell and Cellular Metabolism Responses.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.13.544862v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
NOP16 is a histone mimetic that regulates Histone H3K27 methylation and gene repression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.13.544862v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Post-translational modifications of histone tails alter chromatin accessibility to regulate gene expression. Some viruses exploit the importance of histone modifications by expressing histone mimetic proteins that contain histone-like sequences to sequester complexes that recognize modified histones. Here we identify an evolutionarily conserved and ubiquitously expressed, endogenous mammalian protein Nucleolar protein 16 (NOP16) that functions as a H3K27 mimic. NOP16 binds to EED in the H3K27 trimethylation PRC2 complex and to the H3K27 demethylase JMJD3. NOP16 knockout selectively globally increases H3K27me3, a heterochromatin mark, without altering methylation of H3K4, H3K9, or H3K36 or acetylation of H3K27. NOP16 is overexpressed and linked to poor prognosis in breast cancer. Depletion of NOP16 in breast cancer cell lines causes cell cycle arrest, decreases cell proliferation and selectively decreases expression of E2F target genes and of genes involved in cell cycle, growth and apoptosis. Conversely, ectopic NOP16 expression in triple negative breast cancer cell lines increases cell proliferation, cell migration and invasivity in vitro and tumor growth in vivo, while NOP16 knockout or knockdown has the opposite effect. Thus, NOP16 is a histone mimic that competes with Histone H3 for H3K27 methylation and demethylation. When it is overexpressed in cancer, it derepresses genes that promote cell cycle progression to augment breast cancer growth.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Takashima, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, D.-J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trovero, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rothi, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mistry, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davis, C. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Natale, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmid, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al Haddad, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffmann, G. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dietmann, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sui, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oshiumi, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lieberman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greer, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-06-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.06.13.544862</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[NOP16 is a histone mimetic that regulates Histone H3K27 methylation and gene repression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-06-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.20.549090v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Functional Connectivity Development along the Sensorimotor-Association Axis Enhances the Cortical Hierarchy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.20.549090v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Human cortical maturation has been posited to be organized along the sensorimotor-association (S-A) axis, a hierarchical axis of brain organization that spans from unimodal sensorimotor cortices to transmodal association cortices. Here, we investigate the hypothesis that the development of functional connectivity during childhood through adolescence conforms to the cortical hierarchy defined by the S-A axis. We tested this pre-registered hypothesis in four large-scale, independent datasets (total n = 3,355; ages 5-23 years): the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (n = 1,207), Nathan Kline Institute-Rockland Sample (n = 397), Human Connectome Project: Development (n = 625), and Healthy Brain Network (n = 1,126). In each dataset, the development of functional connectivity systematically varied along the S-A axis. Connectivity in sensorimotor regions increased, whereas connectivity in association cortices declined, refining and reinforcing the cortical hierarchy. These robust and generalizable results establish that the sensorimotor-association axis of cortical organization encodes the dominant pattern of functional connectivity development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Luo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sydnor, V. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pines, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Larsen, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alexander-Bloch, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cieslak, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Covitz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esper, N. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feczko, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franco, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gur, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gur, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Houghton, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keller, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kiar, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehta, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salum, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tapera, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fair, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salo, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shinohara, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milham, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satterthwaite, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-07-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.07.20.549090</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Functional Connectivity Development along the Sensorimotor-Association Axis Enhances the Cortical Hierarchy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-07-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.02.551665v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sex-specific adaptations to VTA circuits following subchronic stress 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.02.551665v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Dysregulation of the mesolimbic reward circuitry is implicated in the pathophysiology of stress-related illnesses such as depression and anxiety. These disorders are more frequently diagnosed in females, and sex differences in the response to stress are likely to be one factor that leads to enhanced vulnerability of females. In this study, we use subchronic variable stress (SCVS), a model in which females are uniquely vulnerable to behavioral disturbances, to investigate sexually divergent mechanisms of regulation of the ventral tegmental area by stress. Using slice electrophysiology, we find that female, but not male mice have a reduction in the ex vivo firing rate of VTA dopaminergic neurons following SCVS. Surprisingly, both male and female animals show an increase in inhibitory tone onto VTA dopaminergic neurons and an increase in the firing rate of VTA GABAergic neurons. In males, however, this is accompanied by a robust increase in excitatory synaptic tone onto VTA dopamine neurons. This supports a model by which SCVS recruits VTA GABA neurons to inhibit dopaminergic neurons in both male and female mice, but males are protected from diminished functioning of the dopaminergic system by a compensatory upregulation of excitatory synapses.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bouarab, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wynalda, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thompson, B. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khurana, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cody, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kisner, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polter, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-08-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.02.551665</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sex-specific adaptations to VTA circuits following subchronic stress]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-08-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.31.555823v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Transcriptomic profiling of Schlemm's canal cells reveals a lymphatic-biased identity and three major cell states 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.08.31.555823v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Schlemms canal (SC) is central in intraocular pressure regulation but requires much characterization. It has distinct inner and outer walls, each composed of Schlemms canal endothelial cells (SECs) with different morphologies and functions. Recent transcriptomic studies of the anterior segment added important knowledge, but were limited in power by SEC numbers or did not focus on SC. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of SC biology, we performed bulk RNA sequencing on C57BL/6J SC, blood vessel, and lymphatic endothelial cells from limbal tissue ([~]4500 SECs). We also analyzed mouse limbal tissues by single-cell and single-nucleus RNA sequencing (C57BL/6J and 129/Sj strains), successfully sequencing 903 individual SECs. Together, these datasets confirm that SC has molecular characteristics of both blood and lymphatic endothelia with a lymphatic phenotype predominating. SECs are enriched in pathways that regulate cell-cell junction formation pointing to the importance of junctions in determining SC fluid permeability. Importantly, and for the first time, our analyses characterize 3 molecular classes of SECs, molecularly distinguishing inner wall from outer wall SECs and discovering two inner wall cell states that likely result from local environmental differences. Further, and based on ligand and receptor expression patterns, we document key interactions between SECs and cells of the adjacent trabecular meshwork (TM) drainage tissue. Also, we present cell type expression for a collection of human glaucoma genes. These data provide a new molecular foundation that will enable the functional dissection of key homeostatic processes mediated by SECs as well as the development of new glaucoma therapeutics.

Significance statementSchlemms canal is a critical ocular drainage structure that maintains intraocular pressure with important consequences for glaucoma. Despite this, Schlemms canal has been relatively understudied with the molecular process that mediate its function, maintain its health, or that are compromised in glaucoma needing much deeper characterization. This study is important as it provides the most comprehensive molecular characterization of Schlemms canal cells to date providing a wealth of molecular details. In addition to highlighting important biological pathways, this information will guide studies to develop new treatments against glaucoma.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Balasubramanian, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kizhatil, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolman, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhandari, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bupp-Chickering, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peregrin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simon, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Montgomery, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>John, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.08.31.555823</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Transcriptomic profiling of Schlemm's canal cells reveals a lymphatic-biased identity and three major cell states]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.06.556503v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The molecular reach of antibodies determines their SARS-CoV-2 neutralisation potency 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.06.556503v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Key functions of antibodies, such as viral neutralisation, depend on bivalent binding but the factors that influence it remain poorly characterised. Here, we develop and employ a new bivalent model to mechanistically analyse binding between >45 patient-isolated IgG1 antibodies interacting with SARS-CoV-2 RBD surfaces. Our method reproduces the monovalent on/off-rates and enables measurements of the bivalent on-rate and the molecular reach: the maximum antigen separation that supports bivalent binding. We find large variations in these parameters across antibodies, including variations in reach (22-46 nm) that exceed the physical antibody size ([~]15 nm) due to the antigen size. The bivalent model integrates all parameters, including reach and antigen density, to predict an emergent binding potency for each antibody that matches their neutralisation potency. Indeed, antibodies with similar monovalent affinities to the same RBD-epitope but with different reaches display differences in emergent bivalent binding that match differences in their neutralisation potency. Together, our work highlights that antibodies within an isotype class binding the same antigen can display differences in molecular reach that can substantially modulate their emergent binding and functional properties.

Lay SummaryAntibodies are soluble proteins that can neutralise pathogens by sticking to them. They contain two identical  arms that allow them to simultaneously bind two identical  antigen molecules on pathogen surfaces. Although we know that bivalent binding is important for neutralisation, we dont know how different antibodies achieve it. We developed a new model to analyse the mechanism of bivalent binding and used it to study over 45 antibodies from COVID-19 patients that bind the RBD antigen of SARS-CoV-2. Unexpectedly, we found that the molecular reach of an antibody, which is the maximum antigen separation that supports bivalent binding, varied widely between antibodies and exceeded their physical size. We show how antibody binding emerges from the interplay of multiple factors, including reach, and that this emergent binding predicts their neutralisation function. The ability to analyse and predict bivalent binding should improve our understanding and exploitation of antibodies.

Graphical abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=155 SRC="FIGDIR/small/556503v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huhn, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nissley, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, D. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kutuzov, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donat, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tan, T. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barton, M. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dejnirattisai, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Supasa, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mongkolsapaya, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Townsend, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>James, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Screaton, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van der Merwe, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deane, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Isaacson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dushek, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.06.556503</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The molecular reach of antibodies determines their SARS-CoV-2 neutralisation potency]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.19.558325v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reconstruction of single cell lineage trajectories and identification of diversity in fates during the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.19.558325v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Exploring the complexity of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) unveils a diversity of potential cell fates; however, the exact timing and intricate mechanisms by which early cell states diverge into distinct EMT trajectories remain unclear. Studying these EMT trajectories through single cell RNA sequencing is challenging due to the necessity of sacrificing cells for each measurement. In this study, we employed optimal-transport (OT) analysis to reconstruct the past trajectories of different cell fates during TGF-beta-induced EMT in the MCF10A cell line. Our analysis revealed three distinct trajectories leading to low EMT, partial EMT, and high EMT states. Cells along partial EMT trajectory showed substantial variations in the EMT signature and exhibited pronounced stemness. Throughout this EMT trajectory, we observed a consistent downregulation of the EED and EZH2 genes. This finding was validated by recent inhibitor screens of EMT regulators and CRISPR screen studies. Moreover, we applied our analysis of early-phase differential gene expression to gene sets associated with stemness and proliferation, pinpointing ITGB4, LAMA3, and LAMB3 as genes differentially expressed in the initial stages of the partial versus high EMT trajectories. We also found that CENPF, CKS1B, and MKI67 showed significant upregulation in the high EMT trajectory. While the first group of genes aligns with findings from previous studies, our work uniquely pinpoints the precise timing of these upregulations. Finally, the latter group of genes represents newly identified regulators, shedding light on potential targets for modulating EMT trajectories.

Significance StatementIn our study, we investigated cellular trajectories during EMT using a time-series scRNAseq dataset. OT analysis was used to infer cell-to-cell connections from scRNAseq data, allowing us to predict cell linkages and overcome limitations of sequencing such as the need to sacrifice cells for each measurement. This approach allowed us to identify diverse EMT responses under uniform treatment, a significant advancement over previous studies limited by the static nature of scRNAseq data. Our analysis identified a broad set of genes involved in the EMT process, uncovering novel insights such as the upregulation of cell cycle genes in cells predisposed to a high EMT state and the enhancement of cell adhesion marker genes in cells veering towards a partial EMT state. This work enriches our understanding of the dynamic processes of EMT, showcasing the varied cellular fates within the same experimental setup.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cheng, Y.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tripathi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>BV, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schiebinger, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDonald, T. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michor, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.19.558325</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reconstruction of single cell lineage trajectories and identification of diversity in fates during the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.21.558686v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Brief Apnea and Hypoventilation Reduces Seizure Duration and Shifts Seizure Location for Several Hours in a Model of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.21.558686v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
ObjectiveSeizures are difficult to control in infants and toddlers. Seizures with periods of apnea and hypoventilation are common following severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). In our multifactorial, severe TBI model (cortical impact, mass effect, subdural hematoma, subarachnoid hemorrhage, seizures induced with kainic acid, and brief apnea and hypoventilation), we observed that brief apnea with hypoventilation (A&H) after induced seizure acutely interrupted seizures, leading us to hypothesize that brief A&H might reduce seizure duration beyond the brief hypoxia and hypercapnia for several hours thereafter. The effects of the timing of A&H on seizure duration and location might inform the pathophysiology of this hypoxic-ischemic injury as well as potential treatments.

MethodsPiglets (1 week or 1 month old) received multi-factorial injuries. Apnea and hypoventilation (1 min apnea, 10 min hypoventilation; A&H) was induced either before or after seizure induction, or as a control piglets received subdural/subarachnoid hematoma and seizure without A&H. In an intensive care unit, piglets were sedated, intubated, mechanically ventilated, and epidural EEG was recorded for an average of 18 hours after seizure induction.

ResultsIn our severe TBI model, A&H after seizure reduced ipsilateral seizure burden by 80% compared to the same injuries without A&H. In the A&H before seizure induction group, more piglets had exclusively contralateral seizures though most piglets in all groups had seizures that shifted location throughout the several hours of seizure. After 8-10 hours, seizures transitioned to interictal epileptiform discharges regardless of timing of A&H.

SignificanceEven brief A&H may alter traumatic seizures We will address the possibility of induced spreading depolarization prior to preclinical investigations of hypercapnia with normoxia, with controlled intracranial pressure, as a therapeutic option for children with status epilepticus after hemorrhagic TBI.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez Lara, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sunkavalli, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mikaelian, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golemb, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Staley, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Costine-Bartell, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.21.558686</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Brief Apnea and Hypoventilation Reduces Seizure Duration and Shifts Seizure Location for Several Hours in a Model of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.28.559990v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Potentiating NaV1.1 in Dravet syndrome patient iPSC-derived GABAergic neurons increases neuronal firing frequency and decreases network synchrony 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.28.559990v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Dravet syndrome is a developmental and epileptic encephalopathy characterized by seizures, behavioral abnormalities, developmental deficits, and elevated risk of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). Most patient cases are caused by de novo loss-of-function mutations in the gene SCN1A, causing a haploinsufficiency of the alpha subunit of the voltage-gated sodium channel NaV1.1. Within the brain, NaV1.1 is primarily localized to the axons of inhibitory neurons, and decreased NaV1.1 function is hypothesized to reduce GABAergic inhibitory neurotransmission within the brain, driving neuronal network hyperexcitability and subsequent pathology. We have developed a human in vitro model of Dravet syndrome using differentiated neurons derived from patient iPSC and enriched for GABA expressing neurons. Neurons were plated on high definition multielectrode arrays (HD-MEAs), permitting recordings from the same cultures over the 7-weeks duration of study at the network, single cell, and subcellular resolution. Using this capability, we characterized the features of axonal morphology and physiology. Neurons developed increased spiking activity and synchronous network bursting. Recordings were processed through a spike sorting pipeline for curation of single unit activity and to assess the effects of pharmacological treatments. At 7-weeks, the application of the GABAAR receptor agonist muscimol eliminated network bursting, indicating the presence of GABAergic neurotransmission. To identify the role of NaV1.1 on neuronal and network activity, cultures were treated with a dose-response of the NaV1.1 potentiator {delta}-theraphotoxin-Hm1a. This resulted in a strong increase in firing rates of putative GABAergic neurons, an increase in the intraburst firing rate, and eliminated network bursting. These results validate that potentiation of NaV1.1 in Dravet patient iPSC-derived neurons results in decreased firing synchrony in neuronal networks through increased GABAergic neuron activity and support the use of human neurons and HD-MEAs as viable high-throughput electrophysiological platform to enable therapeutic discovery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kelley, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chipman, L. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asano, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knott, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howard, S. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berg, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-09-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.09.28.559990</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Potentiating NaV1.1 in Dravet syndrome patient iPSC-derived GABAergic neurons increases neuronal firing frequency and decreases network synchrony]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-09-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.02.560602v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Drug-Free Pathogen Capture and Neutralizing Nasal Spray to Prevent Emerging Respiratory Infections 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.02.560602v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Respiratory infections pose a global health crisis. Vaccines are pathogen specific, and new vaccines are needed for mutants and emerging pathogens. Here, we report a "drug free" prophylactic platform - a "Pathogen Capture and Neutralizing Spray" (PCANS) that acts via a multi-pronged approach to prevent a broad spectrum of respiratory infections. PCANS forms a protective coating in the nasal cavity that enhances the capture of large respiratory droplets. The coating acts as a physical barrier against a broad spectrum of viruses and bacteria, and rapidly neutralizes them, reducing the pathogen load by >99.99%. In mice, PCANS showed nasal retention for at least 8 h and was safe for daily administration. A single prophylactic dose of PCANS protected mice against supra-lethal dosages of a mouse-adapted H1N1 Influenza virus (PR8), reduced lung viral titer by >99.99%, improved survival, and suppressed pathological manifestations. Together, our data suggest PCANS as a promising daily-use prophylactic approach against current and emerging respiratory infections.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Joseph, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baby, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quintero, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kenney, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mebratu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhatia, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swain, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaur, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mwangi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snapper, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nair, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agus, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ranganathan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kage, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Douam, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tesfaigzi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karp, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.10.02.560602</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Drug-Free Pathogen Capture and Neutralizing Nasal Spray to Prevent Emerging Respiratory Infections]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.04.565631v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An injectable in situ crosslinkable platform for ultra-long-acting delivery of hydrophilic therapeutics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.04.565631v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Achieving ultra-long-term release of hydrophilic drugs over several months remains a significant challenge for existing long-acting injectables (LAIs). Existing platforms, such as in situ forming implants (ISFI), exhibit high burst release due to solvent efflux and microsphere-based approaches lead to rapid drug diffusion due to significant water exchange and large pores. Addressing these challenges, we have developed an injectable platform that, for the first time, achieves ultra-long-term release of hydrophilic drugs for over six months. This system employs a methacrylated ultra-low molecular weight pre-polymer (polycaprolactone) to create in situ cross-linked depots (ISCD). The ISCDs solvent-free design and dense mesh network, both attributed to the ultra-low molecular weight of the pre-polymer, effectively minimizes burst release and water influx/efflux. In vivo studies in rats demonstrate that ISCD outperforms ISFI by achieving lower burst release and prolonged drug release. We demonstrated the versatility of ISCD by showcasing ultra-long-term delivery of several hydrophilic drugs, including antiretrovirals (tenofovir alafenamide, emtricitabine, abacavir, and lamivudine), antibiotics (vancomycin and amoxicillin) and an opioid antagonist naltrexone. Additionally, ISCD achieved ultra-long-term release of the hydrophobic drug tacrolimus and enabled co-delivery of hydrophilic drug combinations encapsulated in a single depot. We also identified design parameters to tailor the polymer network, tuning drug release kinetics and ISCD degradation. Pharmacokinetic modeling predicted over six months of drug release in humans, significantly surpassing the one-month standard achievable for hydrophilic drugs with existing LAIs. The platforms biodegradability, retrievability, and biocompatibility further underscore its potential for improving treatment adherence in chronic conditions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joseph, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agus, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barooj, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mary, H. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slaughter, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheung, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karp, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.04.565631</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An injectable in situ crosslinkable platform for ultra-long-acting delivery of hydrophilic therapeutics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.07.566024v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
dact1/2 modifies noncanonical Wnt signaling and calpain 8 expression to regulate convergent extension and craniofacial development 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.07.566024v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Wnt signaling plays crucial roles in embryonic patterning including the regulation of convergent extension during gastrulation, the establishment of the dorsal axis, and later, craniofacial morphogenesis. Further, Wnt signaling is a crucial regulator of craniofacial morphogenesis. The adapter proteins Dact1 and Dact2 modulate the Wnt signaling pathway through binding to Disheveled. However, the distinct relative functions of Dact1 and Dact2 during embryogenesis remain unclear. We found that dact1 and dact2 genes have dynamic spatiotemporal expression domains that are reciprocal to one another suggesting distinct functions during zebrafish embryogenesis. Both dact1 and dact2 contribute to axis extension, with compound mutants exhibiting a similar convergent extension defect and craniofacial phenotype to the wnt11f2 mutant. Utilizing single-cell RNAseq and an established noncanonical Wnt pathway mutant with a shortened axis (gpc4), we identified dact1/2 specific roles during early development. Comparative whole transcriptome analysis between wildtype and gpc4 and wildtype and dact1/2 compound mutants revealed a novel role for dact1/2 in regulating the mRNA expression of the classical calpain capn8. Over-expression of capn8 phenocopies dact1/2 craniofacial dysmorphology. These results identify a previously unappreciated role of capn8 and calcium-dependent proteolysis during embryogenesis. Taken together, our findings highlight the distinct and overlapping roles of dact1 and dact2 in embryonic craniofacial development, providing new insights into the multifaceted regulation of Wnt signaling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Carroll, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schafer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kawasaki, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsimbal, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jule, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hallett, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.07.566024</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[dact1/2 modifies noncanonical Wnt signaling and calpain 8 expression to regulate convergent extension and craniofacial development]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.21.568139v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
GABAergic circuits reflect different requirements for emergent perception in postnatal mouse neocortex 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.21.568139v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Information transfer in the mammalian cerebral cortex is dependent on locally-projecting GABAergic interneuron circuits that are widely assumed to be uniform across neocortical areas. We demonstrate that this does not hold true during the highly dynamic period of postnatal life prior to the onset of active sensory exploration. During this time, a subset of interneuron defined by expression of the neuropeptide somatostatin differentially contribute to sensory-evoked activity in primary somatosensory and visual cortices. This functional divergence between the two areas is explained by differences in the composition of somatostatin interneuron subtypes and the transient circuits formed by these cells; the somatosensory circuit representing an adaptation to control early neonatal touch information. Understanding such area-dependent differences will promote our endeavours to understand the aetiology of developmental psychiatric disorders.

Summary SentenceCortical circuits are adapted to the local information processing demands of the developing brain
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ghezzi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baruchin, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ha, N. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah-Ostrowski, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chama, A. G. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stacey, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Butt, S. J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.21.568139</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[GABAergic circuits reflect different requirements for emergent perception in postnatal mouse neocortex]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.29.569236v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
pH selects for distinct N2O-reducing microbiomes in tropical soil microcosms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.29.569236v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas with ozone destruction potential, is mitigated by the microbial reduction to dinitrogen catalyzed by N2O reductase (NosZ). Bacteria with NosZ activity have been studied at circumneutral pH but the microbiology of low pH N2O reduction has remained elusive. Acidic (pH<5) tropical forest soils were collected in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico, and microcosms maintained with low (0.02mM) and high (2mM) N2O assessed N2O reduction at pH 4.5 and 7.3. All microcosms consumed N2O, but long lag times of up to 7 months were observed in microcosms with 2 mM N2O. Comparative metagenome analysis revealed that Rhodocyclaceae dominated in circumneutral microcosms under both N2O feeding regimes. In acidic microcosms, Peptococcaceae dominated in high-N2O, and Hyphomicrobiaceae in low-N2O microcosms. Seventeen metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) recovered from these microcosms harbored nos operons, with all eight MAGs derived from acidic microcosms carrying the clade II type nosZ, lacking nitrite reductase genes (nirS, nirK). Five of these MAGs represented novel taxa indicating an unexplored N2O-reducing diversity exists in acidic tropical soils. A survey of pH 3.5-5.7 soil metagenome datasets revealed that nosZ genes commonly occur, suggesting broad distribution of N2O reduction potential in acidic soils.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sun, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yin, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cha, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayala-del-Rio, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Konstantinidis, K. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loeffler, F. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-11-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.11.29.569236</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[pH selects for distinct N2O-reducing microbiomes in tropical soil microcosms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-11-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.03.569763v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
AP-2α/AP-2β transcription factors are key regulators of epidermal homeostasis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.03.569763v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AP-2 transcription factors regulate ectodermal development but their roles for epidermal homeostasis in the adult skin are unknown. We find that AP-2 is the predominant AP-2 family member in adult epidermis, followed by AP-2{beta}. Through inactivation of AP-2, AP-2{beta}, or both in keratinocytes we assessed the effects of a gradient of epidermal AP-2 activity on skin function. We find that (1) loss of AP-2{beta} in keratinocytes is compensated for by AP-2, (2) loss of AP-2 impairs terminal keratinocyte differentiation and hair morphogenesis, and (3) the combined loss of AP-2/AP-2{beta} results in more severe skin and hair abnormalities. Keratinocyte differentiation defects precede a progressive neutrophilic skin inflammation. Inducible inactivation of AP-2/AP-2{beta} in the adult phenocopies these manifestations. Transcriptomic analyses of epidermis lacking AP-2 or AP-2/AP-2{beta} in keratinocytes demonstrate a terminal keratinocyte differentiation defect with upregulation of alarmin keratins and of several immune pathway regulators. Moreover, our analyses suggest a key role of loss of AP-2-dependent gene expression of CXCL14 and KRT15 as an early pathogenic event towards the manifestation of skin inflammation. Thus, AP-2/AP-2{beta} are critical regulators of epidermal homeostasis in the adult skin.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raymundo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daly, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Senapati, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marneros, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.03.569763</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[AP-2α/AP-2β transcription factors are key regulators of epidermal homeostasis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.19.572448v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Electroadhesive hydrogel interface for prolonged mucosal theranostics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.19.572448v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Establishing a robust and intimate mucosal interface that allows medical devices to remain within lumen-confined organs for extended periods has valuable applications, particularly for gastrointestinal (GI) theranostics. Here, we report the development of e-GLUE, an electroadhesive hydrogel interface for robust and prolonged mucosal retention following electrical activation. Notably, this novel mucosal adhesion mechanism can increase the adhesion energy of hydrogels on the mucosa by up to 30-fold and enable in vivo GI retention of e-GLUE devices for up to 30 days. Strong mucosal adhesion occurs within one minute of electrical activation, despite the presence of luminal fluid, mucus exposure, and organ motility, thereby ensuring compatibility with complex in vivo environments. In swine studies, we demonstrate the utility of e-GLUE for mucosal hemostasis, sustained local delivery of therapeutics, and intimate biosensing in the GI tract. This system can enable improved treatments for various health conditions, including gastrointestinal bleeding, inflammatory bowel disease, and diagnostic applications in the GI tract and beyond.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ying, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khuu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ro, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bao, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jenkins, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pettinari, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuosmanen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ishida, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayward, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langer, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Traverso, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2023-12-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2023.12.19.572448</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Electroadhesive hydrogel interface for prolonged mucosal theranostics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2023-12-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.26.577394v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Synthetic integrin antibodies discovered by yeast display reveal αV subunit pairing preferences with β subunits 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.26.577394v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Eight of the 24 integrin heterodimers bind to the tripeptide Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif in their extracellular ligands, and play essential roles in cell adhesion, migration, and homeostasis. Despite similarity in recognizing the RGD motif and some redundancy, these integrins can selectively recognize RGD-containing ligands including fibronectin, vitronectin, fibrinogen, nephronectin and the prodomain of the transforming growth factors to fulfill specific functions in cellular processes. Subtype-specific antibodies against RGD-binding integrins are desirable for investigating their specific functions. In this study, we discovered 11 antibodies that exhibit high specificity and affinity towards integrins V{beta}3, V{beta}5, V{beta}6, V{beta}8, and 5{beta}1 from a synthetic yeast-displayed Fab library. Of these, 6 are function-blocking antibodies containing an R(G/L/T) D motif in their CDR3 sequences. We report antibody binding specificity, kinetics, and binding affinity for purified integrin ectodomains as well as intact integrins on the cell surface. We further employed these antibodies to reveal binding preferences of the V subunit for its 5 {beta}-subunit partners: {beta}6={beta}8>{beta}3>{beta}1={beta}5.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fraser, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anuganti, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lloyd, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jardine, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coppola, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meijers, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Springer, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-01-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.01.26.577394</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Synthetic integrin antibodies discovered by yeast display reveal αV subunit pairing preferences with β subunits]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-01-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.17.580827v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A comprehensive map of transient protein-protein interactions and their structural features in the E. coli 1-carbon metabolism pathway 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.17.580827v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Enzymes in a pathway often form metabolons through weak protein-protein interactions (PPI) that localize and protect labile metabolites. Due to their transient nature, the structural architecture of these enzyme assemblies has largely remained elusive, limiting our abilities to re-engineer novel metabolic pathways. Here we delineate a complete PPI map of 1225 interactions in the E. coli 1-carbon metabolism pathway using bimolecular fluorescence complementation that can capture transient interactions in vivo and show strong intra- and inter-pathway clusters within the folate and purine biosynthesis pathways. Scanning mutagenesis experiments along with AlphaFold predictions and meta-dynamics simulations reveal that most proteins use conserved "dedicated" interfaces distant from their active sites to interact with multiple partners. Diffusion-reaction simulations with shared interaction surfaces and realistic PPI networks reveal a dramatic speedup in metabolic pathway fluxes. Overall, this study sheds light on the fundamental features of metabolon biophysics and structural aspects of transient binary complexes.

Significance statementEnzymes from the same metabolic pathway often form dynamic assemblies called metabolons, which channel metabolites as well as protect labile intermediates. Yet very little is known about their structural features or what makes these interactions transient. Paucity of such information has particularly affected our ability to engineer novel metabolic pathways, construct multi-scale mathematical models of cells, etc. We address this by obtaining a comprehensive map for 1225 interaction pairs in the essential 1-carbon metabolism pathway of E. coli. Using both high-throughput experiments and computation, we uncover that metabolon proteins tend to use a conserved dedicated interface to interact with their partners. These results shed light on structural and energetic aspects of PPI in metabolons at near atomic level of resolution.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bhattacharyya, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ranganathan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chowdhury, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>ADKAR, B. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shakhnovich, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-02-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.02.17.580827</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A comprehensive map of transient protein-protein interactions and their structural features in the E. coli 1-carbon metabolism pathway]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-02-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.09.593409v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Native β-barrel substrates pass through two shared intermediates during folding on the BAM complex 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.09.593409v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The assembly of {beta}-barrel proteins into membranes is mediated by the evolutionarily conserved BAM complex. In Escherichia coli, BAM folds numerous substrates which vary considerably in size and shape. How BAM is able to efficiently fold such a diverse array of {beta}-barrel substrates is not clear. Here, we develop a disulfide crosslinking method to trap native substrates in vivo as they fold on BAM. By placing a cysteine within the luminal wall of the BamA barrel as well as in the substrate {beta}-strands, we can compare the residence time of each substrate strand within the BamA lumen. We validated this method using two defective, slow-folding substrates. We used this method to characterize stable intermediates which occur during folding of two structurally different native substrates. Strikingly, these intermediates occur during identical stages of folding for both substrates: soon after folding has begun, and just before folding is completed. We suggest that these intermediates arise due to barriers to folding that are common between {beta}-barrel substrates, and that the BAM catalyst is able to fold so many different substrates because it addresses these common challenges.

Significance StatementThe outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria is a barrier which protects these organisms from many antimicrobial agents. Here, we study the machine responsible for folding and inserting integral {beta}-barrel proteins into the membrane: BAM. Outer membrane integrity and cell viability is dependent on the proper function of BAM. Here we show that stable intermediates exist on the folding pathway of native substrates. We also show that mutant substrates that increase the stability of these native intermediates can stall during folding. This creates permeability defects that can be exploited by antibiotics that normally do not cross the outer membrane. These observations could enable the design of strategies to combat Gram-negative pathogens.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Santos, T. M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomson, B. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marquez, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monfared, T. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kahne, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.09.593409</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Native β-barrel substrates pass through two shared intermediates during folding on the BAM complex]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.13.593917v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Magnetically Steered Cell Therapy For Functional Restoration Of Intraocular Pressure Control In Open-Angle Glaucoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.13.593917v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Trabecular meshwork (TM) cell therapy has been proposed as a next-generation treatment for elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in glaucoma, the most common cause of irreversible blindness. Using a magnetic cell steering technique with excellent efficiency and tissue-specific targeting, we delivered two types of cells into a mouse model of glaucoma: either human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSCs) or induced pluripotent cell derivatives (iPSC-TM cells). We observed a 4.5 [3.1, 6.0] mmHg or 27% reduction in intraocular pressure (IOP) for nine months after a single dose of only 1500 magnetically-steered hAMSCs, explained by increased outflow through the conventional pathway and associated with an higher TM cellularity. iPSC-TM cells were also effective, but less so, showing only a 1.9 [0.4, 3.3] mmHg or 13% IOP reduction and increased risk of tumorigenicity. In both cases, injected cells remained detectable in the iridocorneal angle three weeks post-transplantation. Based on the locations of the delivered cells, the mechanism of IOP lowering is most likely paracrine signaling. We conclude that magnetically-steered hAMSC cell therapy has potential for long-term treatment of ocular hypertension in glaucoma.

One Sentence SummaryA novel magnetic cell therapy provided effective intraocular pressure reduction in a mouse model, motivating future translational studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bahrani Fard, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Read, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>N Safa, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siadat, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jhunjhunwala, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grossniklaus, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emelianov, S. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stamer, W. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuehn, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ethier, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.13.593917</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Magnetically Steered Cell Therapy For Functional Restoration Of Intraocular Pressure Control In Open-Angle Glaucoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.14.593352v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Targeted Degradation of CDK9 Potently Disrupts the MYC Transcriptional Network 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.14.593352v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) coordinates signaling events that regulate RNA polymerase II (Pol II) pause-release states. It is an important co-factor for transcription factors, such as MYC, that drive aberrant cell proliferation when their expression is deregulated. CDK9 modulation offers an approach for attenuating dysregulation in such transcriptional programs. As a result, numerous drug development campaigns to inhibit CDK9 kinase activity have been pursued. More recently, targeted degradation has emerged as an attractive approach. However, comprehensive evaluation of degradation versus inhibition is still critically needed to assess the biological contexts in which degradation might offer superior therapeutic benefits. We validated that CDK9 inhibition triggers a compensatory mechanism that dampens its effect on MYC expression and found that this feedback mechanism was absent when the kinase is degraded. Importantly, CDK9 degradation is more effective than its inhibition for disrupting MYC transcriptional regulatory circuitry likely through the abrogation of both enzymatic and scaffolding functions of CDK9.

Highlights- KI-CDK9d-32 is a highly potent and selective CDK9 degrader.
- KI-CDK9d-32 leads to rapid downregulation of MYC protein and mRNA transcripts levels.
- KI-CDK9d-32 represses canonical MYC pathways and leads to a destabilization of nucleolar homeostasis.
- Multidrug resistance ABCB1 gene emerged as the strongest resistance marker for the CDK9 PROTAC degrader.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Toure, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Motoyama, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Urgiles, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kabinger, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koglin, A.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iyer, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gagnon, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ojeda, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrison, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rees, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roth, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ott, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schiavoni, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whittaker, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>White, F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richters, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koehler, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.14.593352</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Targeted Degradation of CDK9 Potently Disrupts the MYC Transcriptional Network]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.16.594611v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Mechanically Resilient Soft Hydrogel Improves Drug Delivery for Treating Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis in Physically Active Joints 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.16.594611v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Intra-articular delivery of disease-modifying osteoarthritis drugs (DMOADs) is likely to be most effective in early post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) when symptoms are minimal and patients are physically active. DMOAD delivery systems therefore must withstand repeated mechanical loading without affecting the drug release kinetics. Although soft materials are preferred for DMOAD delivery, mechanical loading can compromise their structural integrity and disrupt drug release. Here, we report a mechanically resilient soft hydrogel that rapidly self-heals under conditions resembling human running while maintaining sustained release of the cathepsin-K inhibitor L-006235 used as a proof-of-concept DMOAD. Notably, this hydrogel outperformed a previously reported hydrogel designed for intra-articular drug delivery, used as a control in our study, which neither recovered nor maintained drug release under mechanical loading. Upon injection into mouse knee joints, the hydrogel showed consistent release kinetics of the encapsulated agent in both treadmill-running and non-running mice. In a mouse model of aggressive PTOA exacerbated by treadmill running, L-006235 hydrogel markedly reduced cartilage degeneration. To our knowledge, this is the first hydrogel proven to withstand human running conditions and enable sustained DMOAD delivery in physically active joints, and the first study demonstrating reduced disease progression in a severe PTOA model under rigorous physical activity, highlighting the hydrogels potential for PTOA treatment in active patients.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slaughter, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ung, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pandya, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, M. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaur, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhagchandani, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alfassam, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joseph, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dewani, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yip, R. C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weldon, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shukla, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherman, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conway, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elickhoff, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Botelho, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alhasan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karp, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ermann, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.16.594611</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Mechanically Resilient Soft Hydrogel Improves Drug Delivery for Treating Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis in Physically Active Joints]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.21.595098v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Leukocytes have a heparan sulfate glycocalyx that regulates recruitment during inflammation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.21.595098v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The glycocalyx is a proteoglycan-rich layer present on the surface of all mammalian cells that is particularly prevalent on endothelial cells lining the vasculature. It has been hypothesized that the glycocalyx mediates leukocyte migration by masking adhesion molecules and reducing leukocyte adhesion to the endothelium. Leukocyte recruitment is a key driver of inflammatory diseases, including the chronic skin disease, psoriasis. Here, we show that leukocytes express heparan sulfate, an important glycocalyx component, on their cell surface which is lost in response to psoriasis-like skin inflammation, whilst endothelial heparan sulfate expression is not affected. Treatment with a heparan sulfate mimetic during psoriasis-like skin inflammation protected heparan sulfate from cleavage by heparanase and resulted in reduced leukocyte accumulation in skin, yet unexpectedly, led to increased clinical signs of inflammation due to reduced Treg numbers. These findings reshape our understanding of immune cell recruitment by revealing the presence and function of a heparan sulfate glycocalyx on immune cells and highlight the complex effects of heparanase inhibitors on the immune response in this context.

One Sentence SummaryLeukocytes express a glycocalyx on their surface which is shed in response to psoriasis-like skin inflammation, facilitating their migration into the skin.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Priestley, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hains, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulholland, I. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spijkers-Shaw, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zubkova, O. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dyer, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saunders, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-05-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.05.21.595098</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Leukocytes have a heparan sulfate glycocalyx that regulates recruitment during inflammation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-05-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.16.599206v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Synthetic genomes unveil the effects of synonymous recoding 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.16.599206v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Engineering the genetic code of an organism provides the basis for (i) making any organism safely resistant to natural viruses and (ii) preventing genetic information flow into and out of genetically modified organisms while (iii) allowing the biosynthesis of genetically encoded unnatural polymers1-4. Achieving these three goals requires the reassignment of multiple of the 64 codons nature uses to encode proteins. However, synonymous codon replacement--recoding--is frequently lethal, and how recoding impacts fitness remains poorly explored. Here, we explore these effects using whole-genome synthesis, multiplexed directed evolution, and genome-transcriptome-translatome-proteome co-profiling on multiple recoded genomes. Using this information, we assemble a synthetic Escherichia coli genome in seven sections using only 57 codons to encode proteins. By discovering the rules responsible for the lethality of synonymous recoding and developing a data-driven multi-omics-based genome construction workflow that troubleshoots synthetic genomes, we overcome the lethal effects of 62,007 synonymous codon swaps and 11,108 additional genomic edits. We show that synonymous recoding induces transcriptional noise including new antisense RNAs, leading to drastic transcriptome and proteome perturbation. As the elimination of select codons from an organisms genetic code results in the widespread appearance of cryptic promoters, we show that synonymous codon choice may naturally evolve to minimize transcriptional noise. Our work provides the first genome-scale description of how synonymous codon changes influence organismal fitness and paves the way for the construction of functional genomes that provide genetic firewalls from natural ecosystems and safely produce biopolymers, drugs, and enzymes with an expanded chemistry.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nyerges, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiappino-Pepe, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Budnik, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baas-Thomas, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flynn, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ostrov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rudolph, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahn, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spencer, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayalavarapu, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tarver, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harmon-Smith, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamilton, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blaby, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoshikuni, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hajian, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kintses, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Szamel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seregi, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Church, G. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.16.599206</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Synthetic genomes unveil the effects of synonymous recoding]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.18.599598v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Covert actions of epidural stimulation on spinal locomotor circuits 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.18.599598v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Spinal circuitry produces the rhythm and patterning of locomotion. However, both descending and sensory inputs are required to initiate and adapt locomotion to the environment. Spinal cord injury (SCI) disrupts descending controls of the spinal cord, producing paralysis. Epidural stimulation (ES) is a promising clinical therapy for motor control recovery and is capable of reactivating the lumbar spinal locomotor networks, yet little is known about the effects of ES on locomotor neurons. Previously, we found that both sensory afferent pathways and serotonin exert mixed excitatory and inhibitory actions on lumbar interneurons involved in the generation of the locomotor rhythm, identified by the transcription factor Shox2. However, after chronic complete SCI, sensory afferent inputs to Shox2 interneurons become almost exclusively excitatory and Shox2 interneurons are supersensitive to serotonin. Here, we investigated the effects of ES on these SCI-induced changes. Inhibitory input from sensory pathways to Shox2 interneurons was maintained and serotonin supersensitivity was not observed in SCI mice that received daily sub-motor threshold ES. Interestingly, the effects of ES were maintained for at least three weeks after the ES was discontinued. In contrast, the effects of ES were not observed in Shox2 interneurons from mice that received ES after the establishment of the SCI-induced changes. Our results demonstrate mechanistic actions of ES at the level of identified spinal locomotor circuit neurons and the effectiveness of early treatment with ES on preservation of spinal locomotor circuitry after SCI, suggesting possible therapeutic benefits prior to the onset of motor rehabilitation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Garcia-Ramirez, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGrath, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ha, N. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wheel, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atoche, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stachowski, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giszter, S. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dougherty, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.18.599598</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Covert actions of epidural stimulation on spinal locomotor circuits]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.25.600501v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Airway basal stem cells are necessary for the maintenance of functional intraepithelial airway macrophages. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.25.600501v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adult stem cells play a crucial role in tissue homeostasis and repair through multiple mechanisms. In addition to being able to replace aged or damaged cells, stem cells provide signals that contribute to the maintenance and function of neighboring cells. In the lung, airway basal stem cells also produce cytokines and chemokines in response to inhaled irritants, allergens, and pathogens, which affect specific immune cell populations and shape the nature of the immune response. However, direct cell-to-cell signaling through contact between airway basal stem cells and immune cells has not been demonstrated. Recently, a unique population of intraepithelial airway macrophages (IAMs) has been identified in the murine trachea. Here, we demonstrate that IAMs require Notch signaling from airway basal stem cells for maintenance of their differentiated state and function. Furthermore, we demonstrate that Notch signaling between airway basal stem cells and IAMs is required for antigen-induced allergic inflammation only in the trachea where the basal stem cells are located whereas allergic responses in distal lung tissues are preserved consistent with a local circuit linking stem cells to proximate immune cells. Finally, we demonstrate that IAM-like cells are present in human conducting airways and that these cells display Notch activation, mirroring their murine counterparts. Since diverse lung stem cells have recently been identified and localized to specific anatomic niches along the proximodistal axis of the respiratory tree, we hypothesize that the direct functional coupling of local stem cell-mediated regeneration and immune responses permits a compartmentalized inflammatory response.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kooistra, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saez, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roche, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Egea-Zorrilla, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anketell, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Villoria, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gillis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petri, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vera, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, N. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alladina, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vinarsky, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shivaraju, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheng, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez-Celeiro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mou, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waghray, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paksa, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yanger, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tata, P. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Causton, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zulueta, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prosper, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cho, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Villani, A.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haber, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajagopal, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Medoff, B. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pardo-Saganta, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-06-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.06.25.600501</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Airway basal stem cells are necessary for the maintenance of functional intraepithelial airway macrophages.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-06-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.02.601574v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Functional analysis of ESRP1/2 gene variants and CTNND1 isoforms in orofacial cleft pathogenesis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.02.601574v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Orofacial cleft (OFC) is a common human congenital anomaly. Epithelial-specific RNA splicing regulators ESRP1 and ESRP2 regulate craniofacial morphogenesis and their disruption result in OFC in zebrafish, mouse and humans. Using esrp1/2 mutant zebrafish and murine Py2T cell line models, we functionally tested the pathogenicity of human ESRP1/2 gene variants. We found that many variants predicted by in silico methods to be pathogenic were functionally benign. Esrp1 also regulates the alternative splicing of Ctnnd1 and these genes are co-expressed in the embryonic and oral epithelium. In fact, over-expression of ctnnd1 is sufficient to rescue morphogenesis of epithelial-derived structures in esrp1/2 zebrafish mutants. Additionally, we identified 13 CTNND1 variants from genome sequencing of OFC cohorts, confirming CTNND1 as a key gene in human OFC. This work highlights the importance of functional assessment of human gene variants and demonstrates the critical requirement of Esrp-Ctnnd1 acting in the embryonic epithelium to regulate palatogenesis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Caetano da Silva, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Macias Trevino, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murali, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsimbal, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dalessandro, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carroll, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kochhar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Curtis, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, C. H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kutschera, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carstens, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xing, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leslie, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.02.601574</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Functional analysis of ESRP1/2 gene variants and CTNND1 isoforms in orofacial cleft pathogenesis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.04.602096v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Antimicrobial cetylpyridinium chloride suppresses mast cell function by targeting tyrosine phosphorylation of Syk kinase 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.04.602096v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) is a quaternary ammonium antimicrobial used in numerous personal care products, human food, cosmetic products, and cleaning solutions. Yet, there is minimal published data on CPC effects on eukaryotes, immune signaling, and human health. Previously, we showed that low-micromolar CPC inhibits rat mast cell function by inhibiting antigen (Ag)-stimulated Ca2+ mobilization, microtubule polymerization, and degranulation. In this study, we extend the findings to human mast cells (LAD2) and present data indicating that CPCs mechanism of action centers on its positively-charged quaternary nitrogen in its pyridinium headgroup. CPCs inhibitory effect is independent of signaling platform receptor architecture. Tyrosine phosphorylation events are a trigger of Ca2+ mobilization necessary for degranulation. CPC inhibits global tyrosine phosphorylation in Ag-stimulated mast cells. Specifically, CPC inhibits tyrosine phosphorylation of specific key players Syk kinase and LAT, a substrate of Syk. In contrast, CPC does not affect Lyn kinase phosphorylation. Thus, CPCs root mechanism is electrostatic disruption of particular tyrosine phosphorylation events essential for signaling. This work outlines the biochemical mechanisms underlying the effects of CPC on immune signaling and allows the prediction of CPC effects on cell types, like T cells, that share similar signaling elements.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Obeng, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>West, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wagner, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleming, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tasker, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lorenger, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Systuk, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plummer, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eom, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paine, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frangos, C. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilczek, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shim, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maginnis, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gosse, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.04.602096</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Antimicrobial cetylpyridinium chloride suppresses mast cell function by targeting tyrosine phosphorylation of Syk kinase]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.11.603134v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Expansion and revision of the genus Xanthobacter and proposal of Roseixanthobacter gen. nov. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.11.603134v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The nitrogen-fixing, chemolithoautotrophic genus Xanthobacter is found worldwide across numerous diverse environments and is an important member of many ecosystems. These species serve as model systems for their metabolic properties in academic settings and have industrial applications in bioremediation and sustainable protein, food, and fertilizer production. Despite their abundance, interest, and importance, the majority of Xanthobacter strains are without a genome sequence, and only 8 validly published species are known to date. To expand our understanding of the diversity and evolutionary history of the genus, we sequenced the genomes of 37 repository strains and 26 novel environmental strains we isolated. After performing comparative phylogenomic analyses, we expand and revise the genus Xanthobacter and propose the novel genus Roseixanthobacter gen. nov. For the Xanthobacter, we describe 10 novel species, bringing the total to 18: Xanthobacter agilis, Xanthobacter albus sp. nov., Xanthobacter aminoxidans, Xanthobacter autotrophicus, Xanthobacter cornucopiae sp. nov., Xanthobacter dioxanivorans, Xanthobacter flavus, Xanthobacter lutulentifluminis sp. nov., Xanthobacter nonsaccharivorans sp. nov., Xanthobacter oligotrophicus, Xanthobacter pseudotagetidis sp. nov., Xanthobacter sediminis sp. nov., Xanthobacter tagetidis, Xanthobacter toluenivorans sp. nov., Xanthobacter variabilis sp. nov., Xanthobacter versatilis sp. nov., Xanthobacter viscosus, and Xanthobacter wiegelii sp. nov. For the Roseixanthobacter gen. nov., we describe 5 novel species formerly classified as Xanthobacter: Roseixanthobacter finlandensis sp. nov., Roseixanthobacter glucoisosaccharinivorans sp. nov., Roseixanthobacter liquoris sp. nov., Roseixanthobacter pseudopolyaromaticivorans sp. nov., and Roseixanthobacter psychrophilus sp. nov. We characterized the phenotypic properties of these type strains, including temperature, salinity and pH ranges, carbon substrate utilization, motility, antibiotic susceptibility, slime production, autotrophic growth, and enzymatic activities. We discovered a more diverse range of phenotypes across the genus Xanthobacter than previously known and elucidated the evolutionary history within the genus. These findings and genome sequences will help further the application of Xanthobacter biology in academic, industrial, and environmental settings and provide additional insight into the unique biological properties that make these species attractive for such applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Soltysiak, M. P. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jalihal, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christophersen, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ory, A. L. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boulton, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Springer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.11.603134</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Expansion and revision of the genus Xanthobacter and proposal of Roseixanthobacter gen. nov.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.17.603945v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Clarifying misconceptions of biomolecular condensate formation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.17.603945v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Biomolecular condensates are liquid-like phase separations of disordered proteins and other molecules within cells. These membrane-less organelles are essential in critical cellular processes and are aberrant in myriad disease. Yet, the thermodynamics of condensate formation are not entirely understood, thus the mechanisms of condensate function remain elusive. Two assumptions about biomolecular condensates are that they form through liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) and require multivalent interactions. Here, we show results and propose thermodynamic frameworks that suggest these assumptions are not always correct. We demonstrate that condensation does not follow canonical LLPS and that liquid-like phase separation can arise from monovalent interactions. These results clarify the mechanism of condensate thermodynamics to reframe our understanding of condensates in cellular function and disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hosamane, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hartman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dubach, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.17.603945</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Clarifying misconceptions of biomolecular condensate formation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.27.605383v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Imaging of developing human brains with ex vivo PSOCT and dMRI 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.27.605383v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The human brain undergoes substantial developmental changes in the first five years of life. Particularly in the white matter, myelination of axons occurs near birth and continues at a rapid pace during the first 2 to 3 years. Diffusion MRI (dMRI) has revolutionized our understanding of developmental trajectories in white matter. However, the mm-resolution of in vivo techniques bears significant limitation in revealing the microstructure of the developing brain. Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PSOCT) is a three-dimensional (3D) optical imaging technique that uses polarized light interferometry to target myelinated fiber tracts with micrometer resolution. Previous studies have shown that PSOCT contributes significantly to the elucidation of myelin content and quantification of fiber orientation in adult human brains. In this study, we utilized the PSOCT technique to study developing brains during the first 5 years of life in combination with ex vivo dMRI. The results showed that the optical properties of PSOCT quantitatively reveal the myelination process in young children. The imaging contrast of the optic axis orientation is a sensitive measure of fiber orientations in largely unmyelinated brains as young as 3-months-old. The micrometer resolution of PSOCT provides substantially enriched information about complex fiber networks and complements submillimeter dMRI. This new optical tool offers great potential to reveal the white matter structures in normal neurodevelopment and developmental disorders in unprecedented detail.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blanke, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gong, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ortug, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alatorre Warren, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clickner, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ammon, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nolan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cotronis, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van der Kouwe, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takahashi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-07-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.07.27.605383</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Imaging of developing human brains with ex vivo PSOCT and dMRI]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-07-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.15.608169v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Computational modeling of cancer cell metabolism along the catabolic-anabolic axes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.15.608169v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Abnormal metabolism is a hallmark of cancer. Initially recognized through the observation of aerobic glycolysis in cancer nearly a century ago. Also, we now know that mitochondrial respiration is also used by cancer for progression and metastasis. However, it remains largely unclear the mechanisms by which cancer cells mix and match different metabolic modalities (oxidative/reductive) and leverage various metabolic ingredients (glucose, fatty acids, glutamine) to meet their bioenergetic and biosynthetic needs. Here, we formulate a phenotypic model for cancer metabolism by coupling master gene regulators (AMPK, HIF-1, Myc) with key metabolic substrates (glucose, fatty acid, and glutamine). The model predicts that cancer cells can acquire four metabolic phenotypes: a catabolic phenotype characterized by vigorous oxidative processes - O, an anabolic phenotype characterized by pronounced reductive activities - W, and two complementary hybrid metabolic states - one exhibiting both high catabolic and high anabolic activity - W/O, and the other relying mainly on glutamine oxidation - Q. Using this framework, we quantified gene and metabolic pathway activity respectively by developing scoring metrics based on gene expression. We validated the model-predicted gene-metabolic pathway association and the characterization of the four metabolic phenotypes by analyzing RNA-seq data of tumor samples from TCGA. Strikingly, carcinoma samples exhibiting hybrid metabolic phenotypes are often associated with the worst survival outcomes relative to other metabolic phenotypes. Our mathematical model and scoring metrics serve as a platform to quantify cancer metabolism and study how cancer cells adapt their metabolism upon perturbations, which ultimately could facilitate an effective treatment targeting cancer metabolic plasticity.

Statement of significanceWe present a theoretical framework that integrates both catabolic and anabolic modes of cancer metabolism, considering the complex interplay between glucose, fatty acids, and glutamine, by coupling genetic regulation with metabolic pathways. Our work characterizes four main metabolic phenotypes in cancer - OXPHOS, glycolysis, hybrid, glutamine-dominant and demonstrates the critical role of Myc on glutamine metabolism in all four phenotypes. The characterization of metabolism can guide our evaluation of patient survival across cancer types.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Villela-Castrejon, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jia, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.15.608169</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Computational modeling of cancer cell metabolism along the catabolic-anabolic axes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.16.608353v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cell model for the holistic study of epithelial to mesenchymal transitions (EMTs) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.16.608353v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a widely studied but poorly defined state change due to the variety of ways in which it has been characterized in cells. There is a need for reproducible cell model systems that enable the integration and comparison of different types of measured observations of cells across many distinct cellular contexts. We present human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cells as such a model system by demonstrating its utility through a comparative analysis of hiPS cell-EMT in 2D and 3D cell culture geometries. We developed live-imaging-based assays to directly compare examples of changes in cell function (via migration timing), molecular components (via expression of marker proteins), organization (via reorganization of cell junctions), and environment (via dynamics of basement membrane) in the same experimental system. The EMT-related changes we measured occurred earlier in 2D colonies than in 3D lumenoids, likely due to differences in the basement membrane environments associated with 2D vs. 3D initial hiPS cell culture geometries. We have made the 449 60-hour-long 3D time-lapse movies and the associated tools used for analysis and visualization open-source and easily accessible as a resource for future work in this field.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hookway, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Borensztejn, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harris, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carlson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dalgin, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mishra, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nivedita, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adams, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barszczewski, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dixon, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Edmonds, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ehlers, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferrante, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuqua, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garrison, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gopalan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gregor, B. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hedayati, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klein, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leveille, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meharry, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morris, H. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nadarajan, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oluoch, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parent, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roberts, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanchez, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sluzewski, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snyder, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thirstrup, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thottam, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torvi, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Turman, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Viana, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilhelm, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wijesooriya, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Theriot, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rafelski, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunawarda</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.16.608353</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A human induced pluripotent stem (hiPS) cell model for the holistic study of epithelial to mesenchymal transitions (EMTs)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.29.610385v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Amputation Triggers Long-Range Epidermal Permeability Changes in Evolutionarily Distant Regenerative Organisms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.29.610385v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Previous studies have reported that amputation invokes body-wide responses in regenerative organisms, but most have not examined the implications of these changes beyond the region of tissue regrowth. Specifically, long-range epidermal responses to amputation are largely uncharacterized, with research on amputation-induced epidermal responses in regenerative organisms traditionally being restricted to the wound site. Here, we investigate the effect of amputation on long-range epidermal permeability in two evolutionarily distant, regenerative organisms: axolotls and planarians. We find that amputation triggers a long-range increase in epidermal permeability in axolotls, accompanied by a long-range epidermal downregulation in MAPK signaling. Additionally, we provide functional evidence that pharmacologically inhibiting MAPK signaling in regenerating planarians increases long-range epidermal permeability. These findings advance our knowledge of body-wide changes due to amputation in regenerative organisms and warrant further study on whether epidermal permeability dysregulation in the context of amputation may lead to pathology in both regenerative and non-regenerative organisms.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=167 SRC="FIGDIR/small/610385v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dooling, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abouelela, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tajer, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paoli, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Powell, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luong, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, S. Y. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thornton, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singer, H. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savage, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bateman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DiTommaso, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Payzin-Dogru, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whited, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-08-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.29.610385</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Amputation Triggers Long-Range Epidermal Permeability Changes in Evolutionarily Distant Regenerative Organisms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-08-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610195v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Increased burden of rare risk variants across gene expression networks predisposes to sporadic Parkinson's disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.08.30.610195v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alpha-synuclein (Syn) is an intrinsically disordered protein that accumulates in the brains of patients with Parkinsons disease and forms intraneuronal inclusions called Lewy Bodies. While the mechanism underlying the dysregulation of Syn in Parkinsons disease is unclear, it is thought that prionoid cell-to-cell propagation of Syn has an important role. Through a high throughput screen, we recently identified 38 genes whose knock down modulates Syn propagation. Follow up experiments were undertaken for two of those genes, TAX1BP1 and ADAMTS19, to study the mechanism with which they regulate Syn homeostasis. We used a recently developed M17D neuroblastoma cell line expressing triple mutant (E35K+E46K+E61K) "3K" Syn under doxycycline induction. 3K Syn spontaneously forms inclusions that show ultrastructural similarities to Lewy Bodies. Experiments using that cell line showed that TAX1BP1 and ADAMTS19 regulate how Syn interacts with lipids and phase separates into inclusions, respectively, adding to the growing body of evidence implicating those processes in Parkinsons disease. Through RNA sequencing, we identified several genes that are differentially expressed after knock-down of TAX1BP1 or ADAMTS19. Burden analysis revealed that those differentially expressed genes (DEGs) carry an increased frequency of rare risk variants in Parkinsons disease patients versus healthy controls, an effect that was independently replicated across two separate cohorts (GP2 and AMP-PD). Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) showed that the DEGs cluster within modules in regions of the brain that develop high degrees of Syn pathology (basal ganglia, cortex). We propose a novel model for the genetic architecture of sporadic Parkinsons disease: increased burden of risk variants across genetic networks dysregulates pathways underlying Syn homeostasis, thereby leading to pathology and neurodegeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Eubanks, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>VanderSleen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mody, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sacks, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Darestani Farahani, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elliott, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaber, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akcimen, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandres-Ciga, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Helweh, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Archakam, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kimelman, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Socha, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guntur, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bartels, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dettmer, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mouradian, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bahrami, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baum, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hardy, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kara, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.08.30.610195</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Increased burden of rare risk variants across gene expression networks predisposes to sporadic Parkinson's disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.02.610875v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cis-regulatory elements driving motor neuron-restricted viral payload expression within the mammalian spinal cord 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.02.610875v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Spinal motor neuron (MN) dysfunction is the cause of a number of clinically significant movement disorders. Despite the recent approval of gene therapeutics targeting these MN-related disorders, there are no viral delivery mechanisms that achieve MN-restricted transgene expression. In this study, chromatin accessibility profiling of genetically defined mouse MNs was used to identify candidate cis-regulatory elements (CREs) capable of driving MN-selective gene expression. Subsequent testing of these candidates identified two CREs that confer MN-selective gene expression in the spinal cord as well as reduced off-target expression in dorsal root ganglia. Within one of these candidate elements, we identified a compact core transcription factor (TF)-binding region that drives MN-selective gene expression. Finally, we demonstrate that selective spinal cord expression of this mouse CRE is preserved in non-human primates. These findings suggest that the generation of cell-type-selective viral reagents, in which cell-type-selective CREs drive restricted gene expression, will be valuable research tools in mice and other mammalian species, with potentially significant therapeutic value in humans.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTMotor neurons transduce the motor outputs of nervous system activity to muscle and are the vulnerable neurons in a number of clinically significant degenerative conditions, including spinal muscular atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A recent strategy for treating motor neuron degenerative diseases has been to use viruses to introduce genes into motor neurons to inhibit the degenerative process. However, we still lack viral reagents that promote gene expression in motor neurons without potentially toxic off-target expression in other cell types. Our study identifies cis-regulatory elements capable of conferring motor neuron-selective transgene expression in a viral context. These findings have important implications for future gene therapeutics for motor neuron-related disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Nagy, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Price, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gill, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ren, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McElrath, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pajak, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deighan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diallo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lo, S.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kleiman, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henderson, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suh, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffith, E. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenberg, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hrvatin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.02.610875</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cis-regulatory elements driving motor neuron-restricted viral payload expression within the mammalian spinal cord]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.11.612410v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Intestinal helminth skews DC2 development towards regulatory phenotype to counter the anti-helminth immune response. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.11.612410v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The intestinal immune system maintains a balance between active immunity needed for protection and tolerance towards harmless antigens. Dendritic cells (DCs) found in the intestinal mucosa are key to the adaptive arm of these immunoregulatory events. DCs sample antigens in the tissue and then migrate to the draining lymph nodes, where they prime the T cells that then migrate back to the tissue as effector or regulatory cells. Intestinal DC are highly heterogeneous, and it remains unclear exactly which subsets induces the different kinds of immune response, or what signalling molecules and cellular mechanisms are involved. Here, we have studied these issues using Heligmosomoides polygyrus bakeri (Hpb) infection in mice, a model which is uniquely suited to dissecting this regulatory circuit in the gut, where it drives type 2 protective immunity at the same time as inhibiting other aspects of the immune response. Here, we characterise intestinal DC during Hpb infection for the first time. We observed a dynamical change of intestinal DC populations throughout the course of infection that correlated with altered phenotype and function. In particular, Hpb infection saw a rise in a population of CD103+ DC2 that retained a potent ability to drive Tregs during the infection and unlike CD103-DC2, had a reduced ability to induce pro-inflammatory immune response. Furthermore, transcriptional analysis revealed that TGF{beta} signalling may be responsible for some of the changes observed. This was confirmed in vitro, where supplementation TGF{beta} or Hpb-produced TGF{beta} mimic (TGM) replicated the immunomodulatory effects seen in DCs in vivo. Together, these results present a mechanistic explanation of how helminths such as Hpb may modulate host immune responses by altering the differentiation and function of local DCs. Furthermore, our work provides the basis for understanding immune homeostasis in the intestine at the molecular and cellular levels. Thus, this work fills out a crucial gap in our knowledge of basic biology underlining the DC decision between pro- and anti-inflammatory immune response in the central circuit of adaptive immune response.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Andrusaite, A. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ridgewell, O. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahlback, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Webster, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yamaguchi, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frede, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al-Khalidi, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farthing, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heawood, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roberts, E. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mowat, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maizels, R. M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perona-Wright, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milling, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.11.612410</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Intestinal helminth skews DC2 development towards regulatory phenotype to counter the anti-helminth immune response.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.16.613045v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identification of potent biparatopic antibodies targeting FGFR2 fusion driven cholangiocarcinoma. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.16.613045v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Translocations involving FGFR2 gene fusions are common in cholangiocarcinoma and predict response to FGFR kinase inhibitors. However, the rate and durability of response are limited due to the emergence of resistance, typically involving acquired FGFR2 kinase domain mutations, and to sub-optimal dosing, relating to drug adverse effects. Here, we report the development of biparatopic antibodies targeting the FGFR2 extracellular domain (ECD), as candidate therapeutics. Biparatopic antibodies can overcome drawbacks of standard bivalent monoparatopic antibodies, which often show poor inhibitory or even agonist activity against oncogenic receptors. We show that oncogenic transformation by FGFR2 fusions requires an intact ECD. Moreover, by systematically generating biparatopic antibodies that target distinct epitope pairs along the FGFR2 ECD, we identified antibodies that effectively block signaling and malignant growth driven by FGFR2-fusions. Importantly, these antibodies demonstrate efficacy in vivo, synergy with FGFR inhibitors, and activity against FGFR2 fusions harboring kinase domain mutations. Thus, biparatopic antibodies may serve as new treatment options for patients with FGFR2-altered cholangiocarcinoma.

SummaryWe identify biparatopic FGFR2 antibodies that are effective against FGFR2 fusion driven cholangiocarcinoma.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chaturantabut, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oliver, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frederick, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, F. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sinopoli, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, T.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kesar, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ching, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dzvurumi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atari, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tseng, Y.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bardeesy, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sellers, W. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.09.16.613045</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identification of potent biparatopic antibodies targeting FGFR2 fusion driven cholangiocarcinoma.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.02.616380v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pharmacological inhibition of Fms-like kinase 3 (FLT3) promotes neuronal maturation and suppresses seizure in a mouse model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.02.616380v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) is a receptor tyrosine kinase predominantly expressed in blood and brain cells. While the FLT3 signaling pathway has been extensively studied in blood cell development and leukemia, its role in the brain remains largely unexplored. Through our groups previous high-throughput drug screening work unexpectedly found that several small molecule FLT3 inhibitors (FLT3i), including KW-2449 and Sunitinib, enhance expression of the gene encoding chloride transporter KCC2 in neurons. KCC2 is crucial for brain development and function, and its dysregulation is linked to many brain diseases. These findings suggest previously unrecognized roles of FLT3 signaling in brain health and disease that have yet to be systematically studied. In this study, we utilized a functional genomics approach to investigate the transcriptomic changes induced by pharmacological inhibition of the FLT3 pathway in brain cells, including cultured primary mouse neurons, a human stem cell-derived neuronal model of Rett syndrome (RTT), and human stem cell-derived microglia cultures. Our results show that treating human or mouse neurons with FLT3i drugs significantly upregulates genes crucial for brain development while downregulating genes linked to neuroinflammation. In contrast, FLT3i treatment of human microglia, which do not express FLT3, has no effect on their gene expression, highlighting the cell type-specific roles of FLT3 signaling in the brain. To further understand how FLT3 signaling regulates the expression of neuronal maturation genes such as KCC2, we conducted a curated CRISPR screen that identified a number of transcription factors involved in FLT3i-mediated KCC2 activation in neurons. The mRNA and protein levels of several neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) risk genes are significantly upregulated in FLT3i-treated neurons, indicating potential therapeutic applications of FLT3i in rescuing underexpression and/or haploinsufficiency of disease-associated genes. In our in vivo studies, we evaluated the efficacy of the FLT3i drug KW-2449 in mice, demonstrating that it can effectively cross the blood-brain barrier, induce KCC2 protein expression for up to 24 hours after a single injection, and reduces seizure activity in a chemoconvulsant-induced mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Collectively, our findings uncover previously unrecognized roles of neuron-specific FLT3 signaling in promoting neuronal maturation and reducing neuroinflammation. These results suggest that FLT3 kinase signaling regulates a transcriptional program vital for brain development and function, position it as a promising therapeutic target for NDD treatment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cruite, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gallagher, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coleman, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yin, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shahbo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lungjangwa, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hovestadt, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaenisch, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maguire, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.02.616380</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pharmacological inhibition of Fms-like kinase 3 (FLT3) promotes neuronal maturation and suppresses seizure in a mouse model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.29.620927v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Self-Documenting Plasmids 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.10.29.620927v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SO_SCPLOWUMMARYC_SCPLOWPlasmids are the workhorse of biotechnology. These small DNA molecules are used to produce recombinant proteins and to engineer living organisms. They can be regarded as the blueprints of many biotechnology products. It is, therefore, critical to ensure that the sequences of these DNA molecules match their intended designs. Yet, plasmid verification remains challenging. To secure the exchange of plasmids in research and development workflows, we have developed self-documenting plasmids that encode information about themselves in their own DNA molecules. Users of self-documenting plasmids can retrieve critical information about the plasmid without prior knowledge of the plasmid identity. The insertion of documentation in the plasmid sequence does not adversely affect their propagation in bacteria and does not compromise protein expression in mammalian cells. This technology simplifies plasmid verification, hardens supply chains, and has the potential to transform the protection of intellectual property in the life sciences.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Peccoud, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez, S. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kar, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berezin, C.-T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peccoud, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-10-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.10.29.620927</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Self-Documenting Plasmids]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-10-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.11.622990v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Hunger modulates exploration through suppression of dopamine signaling in the tail of striatum 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.11.622990v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Caloric depletion leads to behavioral changes that help an animal find food and restore its homeostatic balance. Hunger increases exploration and risk-taking behavior, allowing an animal to forage for food despite risks; however, the neural circuitry underlying this change is unknown. Here, we characterize how hunger restructures an animals spontaneous behavior as well as its directed exploration of a novel object. We show that hunger-induced changes in exploration are accompanied by and result from modulation of dopamine signaling in the tail of the striatum (TOS). Dopamine signaling in the TOS is modulated by internal hunger state through the activity of agouti-related peptide (AgRP) neurons, putative "hunger neurons" in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus. These AgRP neurons are poly-synaptically connected to TOS-projecting dopaminergic neurons through the lateral hypothalamus, the central amygdala, and the periaqueductal grey. We thus delineate a hypothalamic-midbrain circuit that coordinates changes in exploration behavior in the hungry state.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kamath, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lodder, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bilsel, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Green, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dalangin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capelli, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raghubardayal, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Legister, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hulshof, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wallace, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tian, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uchida, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watabe-Uchida, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sabatini, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-11-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.11.11.622990</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hunger modulates exploration through suppression of dopamine signaling in the tail of striatum]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-11-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.09.627616v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Tracing the stepwise Darwinian evolution of a plant halogenase 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.09.627616v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Halogenation chemistry is rare in plant metabolism, with the chloroalkaloid acutumine produced by Menispermaceae species being the only well characterized example, involving a specialized dechloroacutumine halogenase (DAH) from the iron(II)- and 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase (2ODD) superfamily. While DAH is presumed to have evolved from an ancestral 2ODD enzyme, the broader question of how new enzymes arise through Darwinian processes, such as the birth of DAH in Menispermaceae, remains a fundamental challenge in understanding metabolic evolution. Here, we investigate DAHs evolutionary trajectory using the chromosomal-level genome assembly of Menispermum canadense. By analyzing the genomic context of DAH in M. canadense and syntenic regions in related plants, we show that DAH evolved through tandem duplication of an ancestral flavonol synthase (FLS) gene, followed by a series of neofunctionalization and gene loss events. Through structural modeling, molecular dynamics simulations, and site-directed mutagenesis, we identify residue changes enabling the transition from FLS to DAH. This functional switch required traversing a complex evolutionary landscape where adaptive peaks were separated by deep fitness valleys. Our work illustrates how new enzymatic functions can arise through lineage-specific evolutionary pathways that gradually reshape the active site architecture through permissive mutations, ultimately enabling mechanism-switching mutations that establish novel catalytic activities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kim, C. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kastner, D. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitchell, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gutierrez, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yao, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neumann, E. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulik, H. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weng, J.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.09.627616</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Tracing the stepwise Darwinian evolution of a plant halogenase]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/391029v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Shear stress mediates metabolism and growth in electroactive biofilms 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/391029v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Electroactive bacteria such as Geobacter sulfurreducens and Shewanella onedensis produce electrical current during their respiration; this has been exploited in bioelectrochemical systems. These bacteria form thicker biofilms and stay more active than soluble-respiring bacteria biofilms because their electron acceptor is always accessible. In bioelectrochemical systems such as microbial fuel cells, corrosion-resistant metals uptake current from the bacteria, producing power. While beneficial for engineering applications, collecting current using corrosion resistant metals induces pH stress in the biofilm, unlike the naturally occurring process where a reduced metal combines with protons released during respiration. To reduce pH stress, some bioelectrochemical systems use forced convection to enhance mass transport of both nutrients and byproducts; however, biofilms small pore size limits convective transport, thus, reducing pH stress in these systems remains a challenge. Understanding how convection is necessary but not sufficient for maintaining biofilm health requires decoupling mass transport from momentum transport (i.e. fluidic shear stress). In this study we use a rotating disc electrode to emulate a practical bioelectrochemical system, while decoupling mass transport from shear stress. This is the first study to isolate the metabolic and structural changes in electroactive biofilms due to shear stress. We find that increased shear stress reduces biofilm development time while increasing its metabolic rate. Furthermore, we find biofilm health is negatively affected by higher metabolic rates over long-term growth due to the biofilms memory of the fluid flow conditions during the initial biofilm development phases. These results not only provide guidelines for improving performance of bioelectrochemical systems, but also reveal features of biofilm behavior. Results of this study suggest that optimized reactors may initiate operation at high shear to decrease development time before decreasing shear for steady-state operation. Furthermore, this biofilm memory discovered will help explain the presence of channels within biofilms observed in other studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jones, A.-A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buie, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2018-08-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/391029</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Shear stress mediates metabolism and growth in electroactive biofilms]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2018-08-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/525659v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Alpha-Synuclein is a Target of Fic-mediated Adenylylation/AMPylation: Implications for Parkinson’s Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/525659v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
During disease, cells experience various stresses that manifest as an accumulation of misfolded proteins and eventually lead to cell death. To combat this stress, cells activate a pathway called UPR (Unfolded Protein Response) that functions to maintain ER (endoplasmic reticulum) homeostasis and determines cell fate. We recently reported a hitherto unknown mechanism of regulating ER stress via a novel post-translational modification (PTM) called Fic-mediated Adenylylation/AMPylation. Specifically, we showed that the human Fic (filamentation induced by cAMP) protein, HYPE/FicD, catalyzes the addition of an AMP (adenosine monophosphate) to the ER chaperone, BiP, to alter the cells UPR-mediated response to misfolded proteins. Here, we report that we have now identified a second target for HYPE - alpha-Synuclein (Syn), a presynaptic protein involved in Parkinsons disease (PD). Aggregated Syn has been shown to induce ER stress and elicit neurotoxicity in PD models. We show that HYPE adenylylates Syn and reduces phenotypes associated with Syn aggregation in vitro, suggesting a possible mechanism by which cells cope with Syn toxicity.nnHIGHLIGHTSO_LIAggregated forms of the presynaptic protein Syn cause neurotoxicity and induce ER stress in cellular and animal models of Parkinsons disease.nC_LIO_LIWe have identified Syn as a novel target for the human Fic protein, HYPE, a key regulator of ER homeostasis.nC_LIO_LIHYPE adenylylates Syn and reduces the aggregation of recombinant SynnC_LIO_LIFic-mediated adenylylation/AMPylation is a possible mechanism by which cells cope with Syn toxicity.nC_LInnGraphic Abstract O_FIG_DISPLAY_L [Figure 1] M_FIG_DISPLAY C_FIG_DISPLAY
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mattoo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanyal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dutta, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chandran, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koller, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camara, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Watson, B. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sengupta, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ysselstein, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Montenegro, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cannon, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rochet, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-01-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/525659</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Alpha-Synuclein is a Target of Fic-mediated Adenylylation/AMPylation: Implications for Parkinson’s Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-01-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/571455v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Noroviruses subvert the core stress granule component G3BP1 to promote viral VPg-dependent translation. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/571455v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Knowledge of the host factors required for norovirus replication has been hindered by the challenges associated with culturing human noroviruses. We have combined proteomic analysis of the viral translation and replication complexes with a CRISPR screen, to identify host factors required for norovirus infection. The core stress granule component G3BP1 was identified as a host factor essential for efficient human and murine norovirus infection, demonstrating a conserved function across the Norovirus genus. Furthermore, we show that G3BP1 functions in the novel paradigm of viral VPg-dependent translation initiation, contributing to the assembly of translation complexes on the VPg-linked viral positive sense RNA genome by facilitating 40S recruitment. Our data suggest that G3BP1 functions by providing viral RNA a competitive advantage over capped cellular RNAs, uncovering a novel function for G3BP1 in the life cycle of positive sense RNA viruses and identifying the first host factor with pan-norovirus pro-viral activity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hosmillo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McAllaster, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eaglesham, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emmott, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Domingues, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chaudhry, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fitzmaurice, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tung, M. K. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panas, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McInerney, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Locker, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willen, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodfellow, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-03-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/571455</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Noroviruses subvert the core stress granule component G3BP1 to promote viral VPg-dependent translation.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-03-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/729343v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Herpes simplex virus-1 pUL56 degrades GOPC to alter the plasma membrane proteome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/729343v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Herpesviruses are ubiquitous in the human population and they extensively remodel the cellular environment during infection. Multiplexed quantitative proteomic analysis over a whole time-course of herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 infection was used to characterize changes in the host-cell proteome and to probe the kinetics of viral protein production. Several host-cell proteins were targeted for rapid degradation by HSV-1, including the cellular trafficking factor GOPC. We identify that the poorly-characterized HSV-1 protein pUL56 binds directly to GOPC, stimulating its ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. Plasma membrane profiling revealed that pUL56 mediates specific changes to the surface proteome of infected cells, including loss of IL18 receptor and Toll-like receptor 2, and delivery of Toll-like receptor 2 to the cell-surface requires GOPC. Our study highlights an unanticipated and efficient mechanism whereby a single virus protein targets a cellular trafficking factor to modify the abundance of multiple signaling molecules at the surface of infected cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Soh, T. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davies, C. T. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muenzner, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connor, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bouton, C. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barrow, H. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emmott, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antrobus, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graham, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weekes, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crump, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-08-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/729343</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Herpes simplex virus-1 pUL56 degrades GOPC to alter the plasma membrane proteome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-08-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/801258v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Biomechanical Modelling of Sitting Movements for Designing Robotic Lower-Limb Prostheses and Exoskeletons with Energy Regeneration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/801258v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Although regenerative actuators can extend the operating durations of robotic lower-limb exoskeletons and prostheses, these energy-efficient powertrains have been exclusively designed and evaluated for continuous level-ground walking.

ObjectiveHere we analyzed the lower-limb joint mechanical power during stand-to-sit movements using inverse dynamic simulations to estimate the biomechanical energy available for electrical regeneration.

MethodsNine subjects performed 20 sitting and standing movements while lower-limb kinematics and ground reaction forces were measured. Subject-specific body segment parameters were estimated using parameter identification, whereby differences in ground reaction forces and moments between the experimental measurements and inverse dynamic simulations were minimized. Joint mechanical power was calculated from net joint torques and rotational velocities and numerically integrated over time to determine joint biomechanical energy.

ResultsThe hip produced the largest peak negative mechanical power (1.8 {+/-} 0.5 W/kg), followed by the knee (0.8 {+/-} 0.3 W/kg) and ankle (0.2 {+/-} 0.1 W/kg). Negative mechanical work from the hip, knee, and ankle joints per stand-to-sit movement were 0.35 {+/-} 0.06 J/kg, 0.15 {+/-} 0.08 J/kg, and 0.02 {+/-} 0.01 J/kg, respectively.

Conclusion and SignificanceAssuming an 80-kg person and previously published regenerative actuator efficiencies (i.e., maximum 63%), robotic lower-limb exoskeletons and prostheses could theoretically regenerate ~26 Joules of total electrical energy while sitting down, compared to ~19 Joules per walking stride. Given that these regeneration performance calculations are based on healthy young adults, future research should include seniors and/or rehabilitation patients to better estimate the biomechanical energy available for electrical regeneration among individuals with mobility impairments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Laschowski, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharif Razavian, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McPhee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-10-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/801258</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Biomechanical Modelling of Sitting Movements for Designing Robotic Lower-Limb Prostheses and Exoskeletons with Energy Regeneration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-10-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/861559v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Corollary Discharge Promotes a Sustained Motor State in a Neural Circuit for Navigation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/861559v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Animals exhibit behavioral and neural responses that persist on longer time scales than transient or fluctuating stimulus inputs. Here, we report that C. elegans uses feedback from the motor circuit to a sensory processing interneuron to sustain its motor state during thermotactic navigation. By imaging circuit activity in behaving animals, we show that a principal postsynaptic partner of the AFD thermosensory neuron, the AIY interneuron, encodes both temperature and motor state information. By optogenetic and genetic manipulation of this circuit, we demonstrate that the motor state representation in AIY is a corollary discharge signal. RIM, an interneuron that is connected with premotor interneurons, is required for this corollary discharge. Ablation of RIM eliminates the motor representation in AIY, allows thermosensory representations to reach downstream premotor interneurons, and reduces the animals ability to sustain forward movements during thermotaxis. We propose that feedback from the motor circuit to the sensory processing circuit underlies a positive feedback mechanism to generate persistent neural activity and sustained behavioral patterns in a sensorimotor transformation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ji, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodgers, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hung, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kawano, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lim, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alkema, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhen, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samuel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2019-12-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/861559</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Corollary Discharge Promotes a Sustained Motor State in a Neural Circuit for Navigation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2019-12-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.16.628723v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Long-read sequencing of hundreds of diverse brains provides insight into the impact of structural variation on gene expression and DNA methylation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.16.628723v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Structural variants (SVs) drive gene expression in the human brain and are causative of many neurological conditions. However, most existing genetic studies have been based on short-read sequencing methods, which capture fewer than half of the SVs present in any one individual. Long-read sequencing (LRS) enhances our ability to detect disease-associated and functionally relevant structural variants (SVs); however, its application in large-scale genomic studies has been limited by challenges in sample preparation and high costs. Here, we leverage a new scalable wet-lab protocol and computational pipeline for whole-genome Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing and apply it to neurologically normal control samples from the North American Brain Expression Consortium (NABEC) (European ancestry) and Human Brain Collection Core (HBCC) (African or African admixed ancestry) cohorts. Through this work, we present a publicly available long-read resource from 351 human brain samples (median N50: 27 Kbp and at an average depth of [~]40x genome coverage). We discover approximately 234,905 SVs and produce locally phased assemblies that cover 95% of all protein-coding genes in GRCh38. Utilizing matched expression datasets for these samples, we apply quantitative trait locus (QTL) analyses and identify SVs that impact gene expression in post-mortem frontal cortex brain tissue. Further, we determine haplotype- specific methylation signatures at millions of CpGs and, with this data, identify cis-acting SVs. In summary, these results highlight that large-scale LRS can identify complex regulatory mechanisms in the brain that were inaccessible using previous approaches. We believe this new resource provides a critical step toward understanding the biological effects of genetic variation in the human brain.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Billingsley, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meredith, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daida, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarez Jerez, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Negi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malik, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Genner, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moller, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gibson, S. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mastoras, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kouam, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paquette, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarreau, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makarious, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hong, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vitale, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shah, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monlong, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pantazis, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shafin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carnevali, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marenco, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auluck, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mandal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miga, K. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rhie, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cookson, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nalls, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singleton, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chaisson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Timp, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gibbs, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillippy, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolmogorov, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sedlazeck, F. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paten, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blauwendraat, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.16.628723</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Long-read sequencing of hundreds of diverse brains provides insight into the impact of structural variation on gene expression and DNA methylation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.17.628768v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Deaminase-mediated chromatin accessibility profiling with single-allele resolution 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.17.628768v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Binding of transcription factors (TFs) at gene regulatory elements controls cellular epigenetic state and gene expression. Current genome-wide chromatin profiling approaches have inherently limited resolution, complicating assessment of TF occupancy and co-occupancy, especially at individual alleles. In this work, we introduce Accessible Chromatin by Cytosine Editing Site Sequencing with ATAC-seq (ACCESS-ATAC), which harnesses a double-stranded DNA cytosine deaminase (Ddd) enzyme to stencil TF binding locations within accessible chromatin regions. We optimize bulk and single-cell ACCESS-ATAC protocols and develop computational methods to show that the increased resolution compared with ATAC-seq improves the accuracy of TF binding site prediction. We use ACCESS-ATAC to perform genome-wide allelic occupancy and co-occupancy imputation for 64 TFs each in HepG2 and K562, revealing that the propensity of a majority of TFs to co-occupy nearby motifs oscillates with a period approximating the helical turn of DNA. Altogether, ACCESS-ATAC expands the resolution and capabilities of bulk and single-cell epigenomic profiling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gibbs, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iwase, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Francoeur, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phan, Q. v.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cole, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinello, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherwood, R. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.17.628768</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Deaminase-mediated chromatin accessibility profiling with single-allele resolution]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.17.628899v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A comprehensive benchmark for multiple highly efficient base editors with broad targeting scope 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.17.628899v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
As the toolbox of base editors (BEs) expands, selecting appropriate BE and guide RNA (gRNA) to achieve optimal editing efficiency and outcome for a given target becomes challenging. Here, we construct a set of 10 adenine and cytosine BEs with high activity and broad targeting scope, and comprehensively evaluate their editing profiles and properties head-to-head with 34,040 BE-gRNA-target combinations using genomically integrated long targets and tiling gRNA strategies. Interestingly, we observe widespread non-canonical protospacer adjacent motifs (PAMs) for these BEs. Using this large-scale benchmark data, we build a deep learning model, named BEEP (Base Editing Efficiency Predictor), for predicting the editing efficiency and outcome of these BEs. Guided by BEEP, we experimentally test and validate the installment of 3,558 disease-associated single nucleotide variants (SNVs) via BEs, including 20.1% of target sites that would be generally considered as "uneditable", due to the lack of canonical PAMs. We further predict candidate BE-gRNA-target combinations for modeling 1,752,651 ClinVar SNVs. We also identify several cancer-associated SNVs that drive the resistance to BRAF inhibitors in melanoma. These efforts benchmark the performance and illuminate the capabilities of multiple highly useful BEs for interrogating functional SNVs. A practical webserver (http://beep.weililab.org/) is freely accessible to guide the selection of optimal BEs and gRNAs for a given target.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menon, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.17.628899</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A comprehensive benchmark for multiple highly efficient base editors with broad targeting scope]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.18.629210v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Parental kynurenine 3-monooxygenase genotype in mice directs sex-specific behavioral outcomes in offspring 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.18.629210v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundDisruptions in brain development can impact behavioral traits and increase the risk of neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, often in sex-specific ways. Dysregulation of the kynurenine pathway (KP) of tryptophan metabolism has been implicated in cognitive and neurodevelopmental disorders. Increased brain kynurenic acid (KYNA), a neuroactive metabolite implicated in cognition and sleep homeostasis, and variations in the Kmo gene, which encodes kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (KMO), have been identified in these patients. We hypothesize that parental Kmo genetics influence KP biochemistry, sleep behavior and brain energy demands, contributing to impairments in cognition and sleep in offspring through the influence of parental genotype and genetic nurture mechanisms.

MethodsA mouse model of partial Kmo deficiency, Kmo heterozygous (HET-Kmo+/-), was used to examine brain KMO activity, KYNA levels, and sleep behavior in HET-Kmo+/- compared to wild-type control (WT-Control) mice. Brain mitochondrial respiration was assessed, and KP metabolites and corticosterone levels were measured in breast milk. Behavioral assessments were conducted on wild-type offspring from two parental groups: i) WT-Control from WT-Control parents, ii) wild-type Kmo (WT-Kmo+/+) from Kmo heterozygous parents (HET-Kmo+/-). All mice were C57Bl/6J background strain. Adult female and male offspring underwent behavioral testing for learning, memory, anxiety-like behavior and sleep-wake patterns.

ResultsHET-Kmo+/- mice exhibited reduced brain KMO activity, increased KYNA levels, and disrupted sleep architecture and electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectra. Mitochondrial respiration (Complex I and complex II activity) and electron transport chain protein levels were impaired in the hippocampus of HET-Kmo+/- females. Breast milk from HET-Kmo+/- mothers increased kynurenine exposure during lactation but corticosterone levels were unchanged. Compared to WT-Control offspring, WT-Kmo+/+ females showed impaired spatial learning, heightened anxiety, reduced sleep and abnormal EEG spectral power. WT-Kmo+/+ males had deficits in reversal learning but no sleep disturbances or anxiety-like behaviors.

ConclusionsThese findings suggest that Kmo deficiency impacts KP biochemistry, sleep behavior, and brain mitochondrial function. Even though WT-Kmo+/+ inherit identical genetic material as WT-Control, their development might be shaped by the parents physiology, behavior, or metabolic state influenced by their Kmo genotype, leading to phenotypic sex-specific differences in offspring.

Plain English summaryInteractions between genetic and environmental factors are carefully regulated during the intricate process of brain development. While genetic information is directly inherited from parents, emerging evidence suggests that parental genetic factors can also shape the environment influencing childrens development in a sex-specific ways. Disruptions in brain development can impact cognitive and behavioral traits and increase the risk of neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. This study explored how kynurenine 3-monooxygenase (Kmo) genotype affects female and male mice, focusing on potential sex-specific behavioral changes in offspring born to parents with a genetic disruption in Kmo. We found that female and male mice with partial Kmo deficiency experienced reduced sleep and increased sleep pressure. In female mice, Kmo deficiency impaired mitochondrial energy production in the brain. We also observed alterations in tryptophan metabolism and nutrient composition in the breast milk of Kmo-deficient females. In adult offspring born to Kmo-deficient parents, females exhibited learning difficulties, heightened anxiety-like behaviors, and sleep disturbances. In contrast, male offspring showed mild cognitive impairments but no major sleep issues. These findings highlight that parental Kmo genotype can influence sex differences in cognitive and sleep-related behaviors in offspring. This underscores the importance of considering parental genetic factors when studying neurodevelopmental disorders and associated behavioral outcomes.

HighlightsO_LIMice with a partial Kmo deficiency, Kmo heterozygous (HET-Kmo+/-), were used to evaluate the impact of parental Kmo genetics on kynurenine pathway biochemistry, brain mitochondrial function, sleep patterns, and cognitive performance.
C_LIO_LIFemale and male HET-Kmo+/- mice exhibited elevated brain KYNA levels and had reduced sleep, prolonged wakefulness, and altered spectra power during sleep. In HET-Kmo+/- females, hippocampal mitochondrial respiration and electron transport chain protein levels were significantly altered. Breast milk from HET-Kmo+/- females increased kynurenine exposure during lactation to offspring, including their wild-type (WT-Kmo+/+) offspring.
C_LIO_LISex differences were observed in learning and memory, anxiety-like behavior, and sleep-wake patterns between WT-Control, from wild-type parents, and WT-Kmo+/+ offspring from HET-Kmo+/- parents. Female WT-Kmo+/+ offspring had impaired spatial learning, increased anxiety-like behavior, reduced sleep, but elevated delta power during sleep. Male WT-Kmo+/+ offspring exhibited deficits in reversal learning only and not sleep impairments.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Milosavljevic, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Piroli, M. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sandago, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Piroli, G. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, H. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beggiato, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frizzell, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pocivavsek, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.18.629210</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Parental kynurenine 3-monooxygenase genotype in mice directs sex-specific behavioral outcomes in offspring]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.20.629596v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Identifying the Brain Circuits that Regulate Pain-Induced Sleep Disturbances 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.20.629596v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pain therapies that alleviate both pain and sleep disturbances may be the most effective for pain relief, as both chronic pain and sleep loss render the opioidergic system, targeted by opioids, less sensitive and effective for analgesia. Therefore, we first studied the link between sleep disturbances and the activation of nociceptors in two acute pain models. Activation of nociceptors in both acute inflammatory (AIP) and opto-pain models led to sleep loss, decreased sleep spindle density, and increased sleep fragmentation that lasted 3 to 6 hours. This relationship is facilitated by the transmission of nociceptive signals through the spino-parabrachial pathways, converging at the wake-active PBelCGRP (parabrachial nucleus expressing Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide) neurons, known to gate aversive stimuli. However, it has never been tested whether the targeted blocking of this wake pathway can alleviate pain-induced sleep disturbances without increasing sleepiness. Therefore, we next used selective ablations or optogenetic silencing and identified the key role played by the glutamatergic PBelCGRP in pain-induced sleep disturbances. Inactivating the PBelCGRP neurons by genetic deletion or optogenetic silencing prevented these sleep disturbances in both pain models. Furthermore, to understand the wake pathways underlying the pain-induced sleep disturbances, we silenced the PBelCGRP terminals at four key sites in the substantia innominata of the basal forebrain (SI-BF), the central nucleus of Amygdala (CeA), the bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST), or the lateral hypothalamus (LH). Silencing of the SI-BF and CeA also significantly reversed pain-induced sleep loss, specifically through the action on the CGRP and NMDA receptors. This was also confirmed by site-specific blockade of these receptors pharmacologically. Our results highlight the significant potential for selectively targeting the wake pathway to effectively treat pain and sleep disturbances, which will minimize risks associated with traditional analgesics.

One sentence summaryParabrachial CGRP neurons regulate awakenings to pain.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lynch, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Luca, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spinieli, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rillosi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sailesh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gangeddula, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lima, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandaru, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arrigoni, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burstein, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thankachan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaur, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.20.629596</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Identifying the Brain Circuits that Regulate Pain-Induced Sleep Disturbances]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.24.630284v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Elucidation of gene clusters underlying withanolide biosynthesis in ashwagandha through yeast metabolic engineering 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.24.630284v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Withanolides are medicinally relevant steroidal lactones produced by Withania somnifera (ashwagandha) amongst other Solanaceae family plants. However, the biosynthetic pathway to withanolides is largely unknown, preventing scale-up and hindering pharmaceutical applications. We sequenced the genome of W. somnifera and identified two biosynthetic gene clusters exhibiting a segmented tissue-specific expression pattern. We characterized the cluster enzymes through stepwise pathway reconstitution in yeast and transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana, leading to the identification of three cytochrome P450s (CYP87G1, CYP88C7, and CYP749B2) and a short-chain dehydrogenase that produce a lactone ring- containing intermediate when co-expressed. A fourth cytochrome P450 (CYP88C10) and a sulfotransferase convert this into an intermediate with the characteristic withanolide A-ring structure, featuring a C1 ketone and C2-C3 unsaturation. The discovery of the sulfotransferase as a core pathway enzyme challenges the conventional paradigm of sulfotransferases as tailoring enzymes. These insights pave the way for an efficient biomanufacturing process for withanolides and future development of withanolide-derived drugs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Reynolds, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trauger, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, F.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moss, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Christ, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knoch, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weng, J.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2024-12-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.24.630284</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Elucidation of gene clusters underlying withanolide biosynthesis in ashwagandha through yeast metabolic engineering]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2024-12-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.02.631107v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Real-time fMRI neurofeedback reduces default mode network and auditory cortex functional connectivity in schizophrenia 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.02.631107v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Background and HypothesisAuditory verbal hallucinations (AHs) are a cardinal symptom of schizophrenia that can cause distress but are not always responsive to antipsychotic medications. There is a critical need to develop novel interventions that target neural mechanisms underlying AHs. We developed a real-time fMRI neurofeedback (NFB) paradigm for AHs that aims at modulating default mode network (DMN) functional connectivity.

Study DesignPatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders who were experiencing AHs (N = 25) attempted to decrease brain activation while listening to sentences recorded in another persons voice and increase brain activation while listening to sentences recorded in their own voice. Participants randomly assigned to the  real group (n = 12) received neurofeedback based on signals from their auditory cortex in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and those assigned to the  sham group (n = 13) received neurofeedback based on motor cortex signals.

Study ResultsAnalyzing resting state fMRI data collected pre- and post-NFB, we found that: (1) at baseline, stronger within-DMN connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex was associated with higher AHs severity; (2) after NFB, participants in the real group, compared to those in the sham group, showed greater reduction in functional connectivity between the MPFC and auditory cortices in the STG and middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Notably, the reduction in MPFC-STG/MTG connectivity was found in all participants in the real group.

ConclusionsThese findings suggest that NFB can effectively and non-invasively modulate functional connectivity in regions associated with AHs in psychosis.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bauer, C. C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morfini, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stone, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Awad, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okano, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hwang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shinn, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niznikiewicz, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.02.631107</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Real-time fMRI neurofeedback reduces default mode network and auditory cortex functional connectivity in schizophrenia]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.18.629302v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mettl15-Mettl17 modulates the transition from early to late pre-mitoribosome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.18.629302v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The assembly of the mitoribosomal small subunit involves folding and modification of rRNA, and its association with mitoribosomal proteins. This process is assisted by a dynamic network of assembly factors. Conserved methyltransferases Mettl15 and Mettl17 act on the solvent-exposed surface of rRNA. Binding of Mettl17 is associated with the early assembly stage, whereas Mettl15 is involved in the late stage, but the mechanism of transition between the two was unclear. Here, we integrate structural data from Trypanosoma brucei with mammalian homologs and molecular dynamics simulations. We reveal how the interplay of Mettl15 and Mettl17 in intermediate steps links the distinct stages of small subunit assembly. The analysis suggests a model wherein Mettl17 acts as a platform for Mettl15 recruitment. Subsequent release of Mettl17 allows a conformational change of Mettl15 for substrate recognition. Upon methylation, Mettl15 adopts a loosely bound state which ultimately leads to its replacement by initiation factors, concluding the assembly. Together, our results indicate that assembly factors Mettl15 and Mettl17 cooperate to regulate the biogenesis process, and present a structural data resource for understanding molecular adaptations of assembly factors in mitoribosome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zgadzay, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mirabello, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanes, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panek, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chauhan, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nystedt, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zikova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gahura, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amunts, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2024.12.18.629302</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mettl15-Mettl17 modulates the transition from early to late pre-mitoribosome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.08.631947v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Spatial density and habitat associations of Atlantic Cod on the Northeastern US Continental Shelf 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.08.631947v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The spatial distribution of the Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) stock is shaped in part by several habitat and oceanographic variables. In this study, Vector Autoregressive Spatio-Temporal (VAST) models were used to combine data from multiple survey programs to hindcast seasonal spatial densities of three size classes of cod within the Northeast US Continental Shelf from 1982 to 2021. Bottom habitat characteristics, bottom water temperature, depth, and basin-averaged climate indices were included as density covariates. Depth, bottom temperature, and gravel sediments were strongly associated with spatial density. The relative abundance of all size classes generally decreased throughout the time series. Model outputs highlighted patches with persistently high spatial density despite range losses and declining abundance. This aligns with the basin model, a spatial dynamic frequently reported in collapsed fish stocks. The availability of habitat with suitable depth and temperature will likely be reduced under current projections of bottom water temperature, further endangering the recovery of the stock. Improving our understanding of cod habitat preferences and variation in spatial density will be important for future management efforts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lankowicz, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabowski, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherwood, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kerr, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.08.631947</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Spatial density and habitat associations of Atlantic Cod on the Northeastern US Continental Shelf]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.11.632528v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Understanding the high-order network plasticity mechanisms of ultrasound neuromodulation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.11.632528v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is an emerging non-invasive neuromodulation technique, offering a potential alternative to pharmacological treatments for psychiatric and neurological disorders. While functional analysis has been instrumental in characterizing TUS effects, understanding the underlying mechanisms remains a challenge. Here, we developed a whole-brain model to represent functional changes as measured by fMRI, enabling us to investigate how TUS-induced effects propagate throughout the brain with increasing stimulus intensity. We implemented two mechanisms: one based on anatomical distance and another on broadcasting dynamics, to explore plasticity-driven changes in specific brain regions. Finally, we highlighted the role of higher-order functional interactions in localizing spatial effects of off-line TUS at two target areas--the right thalamus and inferior frontal cortex--revealing distinct patterns of functional reorganization. This work lays the foundation for mechanistic insights and predictive models of TUS, advancing its potential clinical applications.

Significance StatementTranscranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) offers a non-invasive approach to modulating brain activity, holding promise for treating psychiatric and neurological disorders. Despite its potential, the mechanisms underlying its effects remain poorly understood. By integrating human fMRI data with whole-brain computational models, we identified how high-order functional interactions localize and propagate TUS-induced effects from local to global brain scales. This work introduces two mechanisms--distance-based propagation and diffusion-like broadcasting--that predict functional plasticity changes, providing a foundation for understanding and optimizing the biological and cognitive outcomes of TUS. Our findings offer critical insights into the dynamics of neuromodulation, bridging experimental results and clinical applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gatica, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atkinson-Clement, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coronel-Oliveros, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alkhawashki, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mediano, P. A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tagliazucchi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosas, F. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaiser, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.11.632528</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Understanding the high-order network plasticity mechanisms of ultrasound neuromodulation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.13.632809v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Real-time fMRI neurofeedback modulates auditory cortex activity and connectivity in schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations: A controlled study 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.13.632809v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Background and HypothesisWe have reported previously a reduction in superior temporal gyrus (STG) activation and in auditory verbal hallucinations (AHs) after real-time fMRI neurofeedback (NFB) in schizophrenia patients with AHs.

Study DesignWith this randomized, participant-blinded, sham-controlled trial, we expanded our previous results. Specifically, we examined neurofeedback effects from the STG, an area associated with auditory hallucinations. The effects were compared to Sham-NFB from the motor cortex, a region unrelated to hallucinations. Twenty-three adults with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and frequent medication-resistant hallucinations performed mindfulness meditation to ignore pre-recorded strangers voices while receiving neurofeedback either from the STG (n=10, Real-NFB) or motor cortex (n=13 Sham-NFB). Individuals randomized to Sham-NFB received Real-NFB in a subsequent visit, providing a within-subject Real-after-Sham-NFB comparison.

Study ResultsBoth groups showed reduced AHs after NFB, with no group differences. Compared to the Sham-NFB group, the Real-NFB group showed more reduced activation in secondary auditory cortex (AC) and more reduced connectivity between AC and cognitive control regions including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate. The connectivity reduction was also observed in the Real-after-Sham-NFB condition. Secondary AC-DLPFC connectivity reduction correlated with hallucination reduction in the Real-NFB group. Replicating prior results, both groups showed reduced primary auditory cortex activation, suggesting mindfulness meditation may regulate bottom-up processes involved in hallucinations.

ConclusionsOur findings emphasize delivering NFB from brain regions involved in medication-resistant AHs. They provide insights into auditory cortex and cognitive control network interactions, highlighting complex processing dynamics and top-down modulation of sensory information.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bauer, C. C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morfini, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hinds, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wighton, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stone, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Awad, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okano, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hwang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hammoud, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nestor, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitfield-Gabrieli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shinn, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niznikiewicz, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.13.632809</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Real-time fMRI neurofeedback modulates auditory cortex activity and connectivity in schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations: A controlled study]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.22.634318v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Convergent flow-mediated mesenchymal force drives embryonic foregut constriction and splitting 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.22.634318v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The transformation of a two-dimensional epithelial sheet into various three-dimensional structures is a critical process in generating the diversity of animal forms. Previous studies of epithelial folding have revealed diverse mechanisms driven by epithelium-intrinsic or -extrinsic forces. Yet little is known about the biomechanical basis of epithelial splitting, which involves extreme folding and eventually a topological transition breaking the epithelial tube. Here, we leverage tracheal-esophageal separation (TES), a critical and highly conserved morphogenetic event during tetrapod embryogenesis, as a model system for interrogating epithelial tube splitting both in vivo and ex vivo. Comparing TES in chick and mouse embryos, we identified an evolutionarily conserved, compressive force exerted by the mesenchyme surrounding the epithelium, as being necessary to drive epithelial constriction and splitting. The compressive force is mediated by localized convergent flow of mesenchymal cells towards the epithelium. We further found that Sonic hedgehog (SHH) secreted by the epithelium functions as an attractive cue for mesenchymal cells. Removal of the mesenchyme, inhibition of cell migration, or loss of SHH signaling all abrogate TES, which can be rescued by externally applied pressure. These results unveil the biomechanical basis of epithelial splitting and suggest plausible mesenchymal origins of tracheal-esophageal birth defects.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffmann, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oikonomou, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gill, H. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mongera, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nerurkar, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahadevan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tabin, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.22.634318</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Convergent flow-mediated mesenchymal force drives embryonic foregut constriction and splitting]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.23.634564v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pancreatic injury induces β-cell regeneration in axolotl 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.23.634564v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundDiabetes is a condition characterized by a loss of pancreatic {beta}-cell function which results in the dysregulation of insulin homeostasis. Using a partial pancreatectomy model in axolotl, we aimed to observe the pancreatic response to injury.

ResultsHere we show a comprehensive histological assessment of pancreatic islets in axolotl. Following pancreatic injury, no apparent blastemal structure was observed. We found a significant, organ-wide increase in cellular proliferation post-resection in the pancreas compared to sham-operated controls. This proliferative response was most robust at the site of injury. We found that {beta}-cells actively contributed to the increased rates of proliferation upon injury. {beta}-cell proliferation manifested in increased {beta}-cell mass in injured tissue at two weeks post injury. At four weeks post injury, we found organ-wide proliferation to be extinguished while proliferation at the injury site persisted, corresponding to pancreatic tissue recovery. Similarly, total {beta}-cell mass was comparable to sham after four weeks.

ConclusionsOur findings suggest a non-blastema-mediated regeneration process takes place in the pancreas, by which pancreatic resection induces whole-organ {beta}-cell proliferation without the formation of a blastemal structure. This process is analogous to other models of compensatory growth in axolotl, including liver regeneration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Powell, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singer, H. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juarez, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Payzin-Dogru, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Savage, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lopez, N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blair, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abouelela, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dittrich, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akeson, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whited, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.23.634564</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pancreatic injury induces β-cell regeneration in axolotl]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.21.634165v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mathematical Characterization of Drug-Induced Persistence in Cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.21.634165v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We introduce a general phenomenological framework for understanding how phenotypic plasticity gives rise to drug persisters. These persisters, often quiescent but sometimes which again return to cycling, survive in the presence of treatment and eventually can lead to mutants with true resistance. Our framework builds on recent experimental observations regarding variations between and among single-cell clones and the possible role of the drug itself in enhancing the survival strategy. Predictions of our approach include the existence of an optimum drug concentration as well as an optimum drug holiday schedule to minimize the persistence-based threat.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Park, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.21.634165</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mathematical Characterization of Drug-Induced Persistence in Cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.21.634218v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
De novo Autogenic Engineered Living Functional Materials 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.21.634218v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Autogenic engineered living materials (ELMs) involve in situ production and engineering of native extracellular matrix (ECM). However, the existing autogenic ELMs have limited scope and functionalities. Herein, we report a platform for de novo autogenic functional ELMs. By protein mining, we have discovered CsgA-like 33,564 homologs that can find potential utility as de novo ECM of protein nanofibers. By employing AlphaFold2 and molecular dynamics simulations, we shed insights into the CsgA-like {beta}-solenoid protein structures and stability. By hacking Escherichia coli curli machinery, we demonstrate the production of de novo autogenic ELMs from CsgA-like proteins ([&le;]9-times the molecular weight and {beta}-sheet repeat units) of extremophilic non-model bacteria. Additionally, we biomanufacture macroscopic materials with tunable mechanical properties (enhancing storage modulus by 3-times) and programmable functionalities (3D printability, binding to nanoparticles/antibodies). This work showcases a versatile platform to discover, rationally design, and harness the sophisticated functionalities of natural systems for futuristic autogenic ELMs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hammad, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swarnadeep, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crater, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, R. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deshmukh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manjula-Basavanna, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duraj-Thatte, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-01-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.21.634218</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[De novo Autogenic Engineered Living Functional Materials]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-01-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.29.635549v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
User-Assisted Approach for Accurate Nonrigid Registration of Images and Traces 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.29.635549v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Fully automated registration algorithms are prone to getting trapped in solutions corresponding to local minima of their objective functions, leading to errors that are easy to detect but challenging to correct. Traditional solutions often involve iterative parameter tuning, data preprocessing and preregistering, and multiple algorithm reruns--an approach that is both time-consuming and does not guarantee satisfactory results. Therefore, for tasks where registration accuracy is more important than speed, it is appropriate to explore alternative, user-assisted registration strategies. In such tasks, finding and correcting errors in automated registration is often more time-consuming than directly integrating user input during the registration process.

Therefore, this study evaluates a user-assisted approach for accurate nonrigid registration of images and traces. By leveraging the corresponding sets of fiducial points provided by the user to guide the registration, the algorithm computes an optimal nonrigid transformation that combines linear and nonlinear components. Our findings demonstrate that the registration accuracy of this approach improves consistently with the increased complexity of the linear transformation and as more fiducial points are provided. As a result, accuracy sufficient for many biomedical applications can be achieved within minutes, requiring only a small number of user-provided fiducial points.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Baig, M. M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoang, T. T. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stepanyants, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.01.29.635549</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[User-Assisted Approach for Accurate Nonrigid Registration of Images and Traces]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.02.636120v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
On-demand delivery of fibulin-1 enables repeated basement membrane stretching 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.02.636120v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Basement membrane (BM) extracellular matrices enwrap and structurally support tissues. Whether BMs are uniquely constructed to support tissues that undergo repetitive stretching and recoil events is unknown. During C. elegans ovulation, the spermathecal BM stretches [~]1.7-fold and then returns to its original shape every twenty minutes to passage hundreds of oocytes. Through live fluorescence microscopy, we discovered that ovulating oocytes secrete and deliver the fibulin-1 extracellular matrix protein to the spermathecal BM during stretching, where it forms a dynamic overlapping network with type IV collagen. Fibulin-1 depletion led to a breakdown in type IV collagen and BM organization, resulting in a more deformable BM and extended spermatheca. Moreover, perturbation to fibulin-1 network formation via mutagenesis was sufficient to disrupt organ shape. Together, our study reveals an on-demand fibulin-1 delivery system that protects the BM network when it is stretched, thereby allowing repeated rounds of organ expansion and recovery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Soh, A. W. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arnwine, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gianakas, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, Z. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chi, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffman, B. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherwood, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.02.636120</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[On-demand delivery of fibulin-1 enables repeated basement membrane stretching]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.05.636720v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Combined effects of mechanical loading and Piezo1 chemical activation on 22-months-old female mouse bone adaptation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.05.636720v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
With age, bones mechanosensitivity is reduced, which limits their ability to adapt to loading. The exact mechanism leading to this loss of mechanosensitvity is still unclear, making developing effective treatment challenging. Current treatments mostly focus on preventing bone mass loss (such as bisphosphonates) or promoting bone formation (such as Sclerostin inhibitors) to limit the decline of bones mass. However, treatments do not target the cause of bone mass loss which may be, in part, due to the bones inability to initiate a normal bone mechanapdatation response. In this work, we investigated the effects of 2 weeks of tibia loading, and Piezo1 agonist injection in vivo on 22-month-old mouse bone adaptation response. We used an optimized loading profile, which induced high fluid flow velocity and low strain magnitude in adult mouse tibia. We found that tibia loading and Yoda2 injection have an additive effect on increasing cortical bone parameters in 22-month-old mice. This combination of mechanical and chemical stimulation could be a promising treatment strategy to help promote bone formation in patients who have low bone mass due to aging.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Meslier, Q. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oehrlein, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shefelbine, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.05.636720</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Combined effects of mechanical loading and Piezo1 chemical activation on 22-months-old female mouse bone adaptation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.10.637566v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Protein degradation and growth dependent dilution substantially shape mammalian proteomes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.10.637566v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cellular protein concentrations are controlled by rates of synthesis and clearance, the lat-ter including protein degradation and dilution due to growth. Thus, cell growth rate may influence the mechanisms controlling variation in protein concentrations. To quantify this influence, we analyzed the growth-dependent effects of protein degradation within a cell type (between activated and resting human B-cells), across human cell types and mouse tissues. This analysis benefited from deep and accurate quantification of over 12,000 proteins across four primary tissues using plexDIA. The results indicate that growth-dependent dilution can account for 40 % of protein concentration changes across conditions. Furthermore, we find that the variation in protein degradation rates is sufficient to account for up to 50 % of the variation in concentrations within slowly growing cells as contrasted with 7 % in growing cells. Remarkably, degradation rates differ significantly between proteoforms encoded by the same gene and arising from alternative splicing or alternate RNA decoding. These proteoform-specific degradation rates substantially determine the proteoform abundance, especially in the brain. Thus, our model and data unify previous observations with our new results and demonstrate substantially larger than previously appreciated contributions of protein degradation to protein variation at slow growth, both across proteoforms and tissue types.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.10.637566</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Protein degradation and growth dependent dilution substantially shape mammalian proteomes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.21.639568v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Composition and RNA binding specificity of metazoan RNase MRP 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.21.639568v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ribonuclease (RNase) MRP is a conserved RNA-based enzyme that is essential for maturation of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) in eukaryotes. However, the composition and RNA substrate specificity of this multisubunit ribonucleoprotein complex in higher eukaryotes remain a mystery. Here, we identify NEPRO and C18ORF21 as constitutive subunits of metazoan RNase MRP. Both proteins are specific to RNase MRP and are the only ones distinguishing this enzyme from the closely related RNase P, which selectively cleaves transfer RNA-like substrates. We find that NEPRO and C18ORF21 each form a complex with all other subunits of RNase MRP, stabilize its catalytic RNA, and are required for rRNA maturation and cell proliferation. We harness our discovery to identify a full suite of in vivo RNA targets of each enzyme, including positions of potential cleavage sites at nucleotide resolution. These findings resolve the general composition of metazoan RNase MRP, illuminate its RNA binding specificity, and provide valuable assets for functional exploration of this essential eukaryotic enzyme.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pyo, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheloufi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marzluff, W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murn, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.21.639568</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Composition and RNA binding specificity of metazoan RNase MRP]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.24.639850v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reproducible Brain Charts: An open data resource for mapping brain development and its associations with mental health 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.24.639850v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Major mental disorders are increasingly understood as disorders of brain development. Large and heterogeneous samples are required to define generalizable links between brain development and psychopathology. To this end, we introduce the Reproducible Brain Charts (RBC), an open data resource that integrates data from 5 large studies of brain development in youth from three continents (N=6,346; 45% Female). Confirmatory bifactor models were used to create harmonized psychiatric phenotypes that capture major dimensions of psychopathology. Following rigorous quality assurance, neuroimaging data were carefully curated and processed using consistent pipelines in a reproducible manner with DataLad, the Configurable Pipeline for the Analysis of Connectomes (C-PAC), and FreeSurfer. Initial analyses of RBC data emphasize the benefit of careful quality assurance and data harmonization in delineating developmental effects and associations with psychopathology. Critically, all RBC data - including harmonized psychiatric phenotypes, unprocessed images, and fully processed imaging derivatives - are openly shared without a data use agreement via the International Neuroimaging Data-sharing Initiative. Together, RBC facilitates large-scale, reproducible, and generalizable research in developmental and psychiatric neuroscience.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Shafiei, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esper, N. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoffmann, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ai, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cluce, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Covitz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giavasis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lane, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehta, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salo, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tapera, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calkins, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Colcombe, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davatzikos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gur, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gur, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pan, P. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jackowski, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rokem, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rohde, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shinohara, R. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tottenham, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zuo, X.-N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cieslak, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franco, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kiar, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salum, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milham, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satterthwaite, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-02-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.02.24.639850</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reproducible Brain Charts: An open data resource for mapping brain development and its associations with mental health]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-02-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.02.640994v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Programming cellular condensates for living materials using an intrinsically disordered protein display platform 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.02.640994v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Self-organization of multicellular systems is vital for building structure in living system but remains underexplored in engineered living materials. We developed iDP2, a platform enabling high-density display of intrinsically disordered proteins on the surface of E. coli using CsgF as a surface-bound anchor protein to which other protein domains can be fused. Display depends on a lack of intrinsic structure and enable multivalent weak interactions that drive environmental responsiveness and sequence-programmable self-segregation. iDP2 allow the programming of material properties like viscoelasticity, stability, offering a method to rationally control cell-cell interactions. This approach could be applied to engineer self-organizing tissues or materials with customized properties.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.02.640994</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Programming cellular condensates for living materials using an intrinsically disordered protein display platform]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.02.641090v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Direct RNA sequencing of primary human T cells reveals the impact of immortalization on mRNA pseudouridine modifications. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.02.641090v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Immortalized cell lines are commonly used as proxies for primary cells in human biology research. For example, Jurkat leukemic T cells fundamentally contributed to uncovering T cell signaling, activation, and immune responses. However, the immortalization process can alter key cellular properties, and researchers widely believe this process could significantly change RNA modification machinery and modification sites. In this study, we focus on pseudouridine ({Psi}), one of the most abundant mRNA modifications, and compare {Psi} profiles in mRNA from primary and immortalized T cells using direct RNA sequencing (DRS). Surprisingly, 87% of {Psi}-sites were shared between the two cell types, primarily in transcripts encoding proteins involved in essential cellular processes, including RNA-modification regulation. Furthermore, the analysis of the 13% of sites unique to each cell type reveals that Jurkat cells contained transcripts linked to immune activation and oncogenesis, while primary T cells contained transcripts associated with calcium signaling and intracellular trafficking. We provide a list of these genes, which should be considered when using immortalized cells to study RNA modifications in immunology contexts. Most differences were driven by whether the mRNA was present or absent in the immortalized or primary cell type. Interestingly, RNA-modification enzyme expression levels were highly conserved in both cell types. This suggests that site-specific differences in {Psi} levels arise from regulatory processes acting in trans rather than differences in modification enzyme levels.

Significance StatementIt is widely believed that RNA modification machinery and modification sites could be significantly altered in immortalized cells, yet this has never been tested. Focusing on pseudouridine ({Psi}), we map {Psi} in the transcriptomes of primary and immortalized human T cells. Surprisingly, most sites are conserved in the primary and immortalized T cells, with several important examples of cases with cell type specificity and should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, we evaluated RNA-modification machinery levels in primary and immortalized T cells, finding high conservation across the cell lines. Our findings demonstrate that RNA modifications are largely conserved between primary and immortalized cells, and the edge cases can be considered individually.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fanari, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloch, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meseonznik, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makhamreh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.02.641090</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Direct RNA sequencing of primary human T cells reveals the impact of immortalization on mRNA pseudouridine modifications.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.06.637869v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ion Channel Reaction Networks: Dielectric Screening and the Importance of Off-Pathway Flux 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.06.637869v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The transport of ions through channels involves multiple rare-event transitions through a web of interconnected intermediates. Extracting open channel mechanisms generally requires quantifying the relative flux through these intermediates in response to a range of electrochemical gradients. Although this is ideally suited to network-based representations like Markov state models (MSMs), the relative contributions from different pathways and the importance of network resolution remain open areas of research. Herein, we use a complementary approach called multiscale responsive kinetic modeling (MsRKM) to explore how the screening of ionic interactions and the competition between multiple mechanistic pathways contribute to channel mechanisms and current profiles of ion channels. We find that explicitly optimizing screened ionic interactions in the MsRKM framework vastly reduces the solution search space, enabling more efficient identification of physically robust solutions. Using a model of the Shaker Kv channel, we demonstrate that even when systems are well described by a single dominant flux pathway, the remaining contributing pathways and off-pathway flux play multiple essential roles, including shifting current profiles and mechanisms in response to different electrochemical gradients. We additionally discover that current continues to change above the experimentally predicted saturation point. Model systems explain how the degree of dielectric screening influences channel occupancy, the number of contributing pathways, and why current increases or decreases above its experimental saturation point. Our findings emphasize the importance of retaining a full network description to identify and understand ion channel mechanisms.

Toc

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=98 SRC="FIGDIR/small/637869v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Weckel-Dahman, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daum, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carlsen, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Southam, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swanson, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.06.637869</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ion Channel Reaction Networks: Dielectric Screening and the Importance of Off-Pathway Flux]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.06.641782v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Emergent dynamics of cellular decision making in multi-node mutually repressive regulatory networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.06.641782v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Stem cell differentiation during development is governed by the dynamics of the underlying gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Mutually inhibiting nodes/collection of nodes encompass the GRNs that govern differentiation to two distinct fates. But the properties of GRNs that can allow differentiation into n-terminal phenotypes are not understood. In this study, we examine toggle-n networks, encompassing mutual inhibitions among multiple transcription factors, to derive generalized conclusions regarding the dynamics underlying differentiation into n-terminal phenotypes. We show that in steady-state distributions of gene expression, multiple cell state-specific transcription factors are co-expressed, indicating an obligatory multi-step process of multi-lineage differentiation. Furthermore, we show that cytokine signaling and specific asymmetry of regulatory links can lead to directed differentiation towards a particular cell state. Our findings provide valuable insights into the mechanistic aspects of directed differentiation of stem cells.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>BV, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Billakurthi, H. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adigwe, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hari, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gedeon, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.06.641782</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Emergent dynamics of cellular decision making in multi-node mutually repressive regulatory networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.11.642723v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Allosteric Control and Glycan Shielding Adaptations in the SARS-CoV-2 Spike from Early to Peak Virulence 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.11.642723v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The SARS-CoV-2 Spike glycoprotein is central to viral infectivity and immune evasion, making it a key target for vaccine and therapeutic design. This trimeric peplomer undergoes dynamic conformational changes, particularly in its Receptor Binding Domain (RBD), which transitions between closed (down) and ACE2-accessible (up) states relative to the rest of the protein, to facilitate host cell entry. Structural understanding of such critical inter-domain motions, as well as epitope exposure quantification, is essential for obtaining an effective molecular handle over this protein and, in turn, exploiting it towards improved immunogen development. Focusing on the early circulating D614G form and the later emerging Delta (B.1.617.2) variant with higher virulence, we performed large-scale molecular dynamics simulations of the soluble form of the Spike in both  down and  up conformations of the RBD. Guided by differences in overall fluctuations, we described reaction coordinates based on domain rotations and tilting to extract features that distinguish D614G versus Delta structural behavior of the N-terminal Domain (NTD) and RBD. Using reaction coordinate analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we identify allosteric coupling between the N-terminal Domain (NTD) and RBD, where NTD tilting influences RBD gating. While some of these motions are conserved across variants, Delta exhibits an optimized RBD-gating mechanism that enhances ACE2 accessibility. Additionally, glycan remodeling in Delta enhances shielding at the NTD supersite, contributing to reduced sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies. Finally, we uncover the impact of the D950N mutation in the HR1 region, which modulates downstream Spike dynamics and immune evasion. Together, our findings reveal variant-specific and conserved structural determinants of SARS-CoV-2 Spike function, providing a mechanistic basis for allosteric modulation, glycan-mediated immune evasion, and viral adaptation. These insights offer valuable guidance for rational vaccine and therapeutic design against SARS-CoV-2 and emerging variants.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chakraborty, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, K. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gnanakaran, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.11.642723</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Allosteric Control and Glycan Shielding Adaptations in the SARS-CoV-2 Spike from Early to Peak Virulence]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.10.642354v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Chlorinated Diketopiperazine Antibiotic Targets Mycobacterium Tuberculosis DNA Gyrase 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.10.642354v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We describe a novel macrocyclic peptide, speirobactin, produced by Photorhabdus that selectively kills Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A non-ribosomal peptide synthase (NRPS) containing two linear modules codes for the synthesis of speirobactin. The biosynthetic operon contains a pentapeptide-repeat protein as a resistance gene. Genomic analysis of speirobactin-resistant mutants of M. tuberculosis led to identification of DNA gyrase as the molecular target. The mutations were recreated by allelic replacement and show that DNA gyrase is the only target. Transcriptome analysis of M. tuberculosis treated with antibiotics shows that speirobactin clusters close to fluoroquinolones, supporting its action against the DNA gyrase.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quigley, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Theriault, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iinishi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bargabos, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morrissette, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ghiglieri, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Curtis, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corsetti, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Son, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sarkar, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.10.642354</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Chlorinated Diketopiperazine Antibiotic Targets Mycobacterium Tuberculosis DNA Gyrase]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.12.642878v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Overlooked features lead to divergent neurobiological interpretations of brain-based machine learning biomarkers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.12.642878v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A central objective in human neuroimaging is to understand the neurobiology underlying cognition and mental health. Machine learning models trained on brain connectivity data are increasingly used as tools for predicting behavioral phenotypes 1,2, enhancing precision medicine 3,4, and improving generalizability compared to traditional MRI studies 5. However, the high dimensionality of brain connectivity data makes model interpretation challenging 6. Prevailing practices within the field rely on sparsely selected brain connectivity features, implicitly interpreting identified feature networks as uniquely representative of a given phenotype while overlooking others. Here, we show that commonly overlooked brain connectivity features can achieve similar prediction accuracies while yielding markedly different neurobiological interpretations. Using four large-scale neuroimaging datasets spanning over 12,000 participants and 13 outcomes, we demonstrate that this phenomenon is widespread across cognitive, developmental, and psychiatric phenotypes. It extends to both functional connectivity (fMRI) and structural (DTI) connectomes and remains evident even in external validation. These findings suggest that common practices may lead to feature overinterpretation and a misrepresentation of the neurobiological bases of brain-behavior associations. Such interpretations present only the "tip of the iceberg" when certain disregarded features may be just as meaningful, potentially contributing to ongoing issues surrounding reproducibility within the field. More broadly, our results point to the possibility that multiple neurobiologically distinct models may exist for the same phenotype, with implications for identifying meaningful subtypes within clinical and research populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Adkinson, B. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenblatt, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dadashkarimi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tejavibulya, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horien, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Westwater, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noble, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scheinost, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.12.642878</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Overlooked features lead to divergent neurobiological interpretations of brain-based machine learning biomarkers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.09.642275v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Combining model-based and data-driven models: an application to synthetic biology resource competition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.09.642275v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
This work explores the integration of machine learning (ML) and mechanistic models (MM). While ML has demonstrated remarkable success in data-driven modeling across engineering, biology, and other scientific fields, MM remain essential for their interpretability and capacity to extrapolate beyond observed conditions based on established principles such as chemical kinetics and physiological processes. However, MM can be labor-intensive to construct and often rely on simplifying assumptions that may not fully capture real-world complexity. It is thus desirable to combine MM and ML approaches so as to enable more robust predictions, enhanced system insights, and improved handling of sparse or noisy data. A key challenge when doing so is ensuring that ML components do not disregard mechanistic information, potentially leading to overfitting or reduced interpretability. To address that challenge, this paper introduces the idea of Partially Uncertain Model Structures (PUMS) and investigates conditions that discourage the ML components from ignoring mechanistic constraints. This work also introduces the concept of embedded Physics-Informed Neural Networks (ePINNs), which consist of two loss-sharing neural networks that seamlessly blend ML and MM components. This work arose in the study of the context problem in synthetic biology. Engineered genetic circuits may exhibit unexpected behavior in living cells due to resource sharing. To illustrate the advantages of the ePINNs approach, this paper applies the framework to a gene network model subject to resource competition, demonstrating the effectiveness of this hybrid modeling approach in capturing complex system interactions while maintaining physical consistency.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Darabi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>An, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Al-Radhawi, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cho, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siami, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.09.642275</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Combining model-based and data-driven models: an application to synthetic biology resource competition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.11.642737v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Unveiling Interaction Signatures Across Viral Pathogens through VASCO: Viral Antigen-Antibody Structural COmplex dataset 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.11.642737v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Viral antigen-antibody (Ag-Ab) interactions shape immune responses, drive pathogen neutralization, and inform vaccine strategies. Understanding their structural basis is crucial for predicting immune recognition, optimizing immunogen design to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs), and developing antiviral therapeutics. However, curated structural benchmarks for viral Ag-Ab interactions remain scarce. To address this, we present VASCO (Viral Antibody-antigen Structural COmplex dataset), a high-resolution, non-redundant collection of [~]1225 viral Ag-Ab complexes sourced from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and refined via energy minimization. Spanning Coronaviruses, Influenza, Ebola, HIV, and others, VASCO provides a comprehensive structural reference for viral immune recognition. By comparing VASCO against general protein-protein interactions (GPPI), we identify distinct sequence and structural features that define viral Ag-Ab binding. While conventional descriptors show broad similarities across datasets, deeper analyses reveal key sequence-space interactions, secondary structure preferences, and manifold-derived latent features that distinguish viral complexes. These insights highlight the limitations of GPPI-trained predictive models and the need for specialized computational frameworks. VASCO serves as a critical resource for advancing viral immunology, improving predictive modeling, and guiding immunogen design to elicit protective antibody responses. By bridging sequence and structural immunological datasets, VASCO should enable better docking, affinity prediction, and antiviral therapeutic development--key to pandemic preparedness and emerging pathogen response.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wong, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Subramanian, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stevens, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakraborty, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.11.642737</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Unveiling Interaction Signatures Across Viral Pathogens through VASCO: Viral Antigen-Antibody Structural COmplex dataset]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.12.642945v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cleaved vs. Uncleaved: How Furin Cleavage Reshapes the Conformational Landscape of SARS-CoV-2 Spike 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.12.642945v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein is the primary target for vaccine design, with immunogens typically engineered to enhance stability by introducing proline mutations (2P) and mutating or deleting the Furin Cleavage Site (FCS). While these modifications improve structural integrity, studies suggest that furin cleavage can play a functional role in Spike protein dynamics, potentially enhancing ACE2 receptor binding. However, the impact of this cleavage on the unbound form of the Spike protein remains unclear. In this study, we use extensive all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to compare the structural and dynamic properties of cleaved and uncleaved Spike proteins in their pre-fusion, unbound state. Our results show that Furin cleavage significantly alters allosteric communication within the protein, increasing correlated motions between the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) and N-terminal Domain (NTD), which may facilitate receptor engagement. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) reveals that the cleaved and uncleaved Spike proteins sample distinct conformational landscapes, with the cleaved form displaying enhanced flexibility and a broader range of RBD tilt angles. Additionally, Furin cleavage primes the S2 subunit by expanding the central helix, potentially influencing the transition to the post-fusion state. Glycan clustering patterns further suggest an adaptive structural response to cleavage, particularly in the NTD and RBD regions. These findings highlight the potential functional consequences of FCS deletion in immunogen design and underscore the importance of considering the native cleavage state in vaccine and therapeutic development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mani, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suresh, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakraborty, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.12.642945</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cleaved vs. Uncleaved: How Furin Cleavage Reshapes the Conformational Landscape of SARS-CoV-2 Spike]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.14.643157v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Phase-field Approach to Cellular Blebbing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.14.643157v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bulges in the plasma membrane of cells known as blebs can form spontaneously in a wide range of biological processes but what controls their shape and stability remains incompletely understood. To address this, we introduce a dual phase-field model with coupled order parameters representing the cell cortex and plasma membrane that can quantitatively model blebbing in three dimensions. Simulations and analysis of the model reveal that, depending on whether blebbing occurs by detachment of the plasma membrane or rupture of the actin cortex, blebs can form discontinuously through a saddle node bifurcation or continuously with increasing cortical tension. The model predictions are in good quantitative agreement with existing experimental data for laser-induced cortex rupture.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ji, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.14.643157</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Phase-field Approach to Cellular Blebbing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.19.644218v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Serotonergic signaling governs C. elegans sensory response to conflicting olfactory stimuli 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.19.644218v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Neural circuits that consolidate sensory cues are essential for neurological functioning. Neural circuits that perform sensory integration can vary greatly because the sensory processing regions of the brain employ various neural motifs. Here, we investigate a neural circuit that mediates the response to conflicting olfactory stimuli in C. elegans. We concurrently expose animals to an aversive dispersal pheromone, osas#9, and an attractive bacterial extract. While worms usually avoid osas#9 alone, they suppress this avoidance behavior in the presence of a bacterial extract. Loss-of-function mutants and cell-specific rescues reveal that serotonergic signaling from the ADF neuron is essential for bacterial extract-induced osas#9 avoidance attenuation. The inhibitory serotonin receptor, MOD-1, which is widely expressed on interneurons and motor neurons, is required for this sensory integration, suggesting that serotonin acts in an inhibitory manner. By performing calcium imaging on the ADF neurons in synaptic signaling (unc-13) and peptidergic (unc-31) signaling mutant backgrounds, we show that the ADF neurons require input from other neurons, likely the ASK neurons, to respond to food extracts. We reveal a cue integration neural circuit in which serotonergic signaling at the sensory neuron level silences an aversive neural signal.

SignificanceAnimals use sensory cues to make behavioral choices and sometimes, these cues convey opposite information. The nervous system consolidates competing sensory cues to create a coherent response to external stimuli. The neural circuits that govern this process are important, and still largely unknown. We use C. elegans, a soil-dwelling nematode, to uncover a neural circuit governing the consolidation of competing cues by concurrently exposing worms to positive and negative stimuli . We find that the neurotransmitter serotonin can suppress aversive neural signals created by negative stimuli. These results show the important neurological role that serotonin plays in modulating neural signals.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Srinivasan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muirhead, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guerra, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fox, B. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schroeder, F. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.19.644218</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Serotonergic signaling governs C. elegans sensory response to conflicting olfactory stimuli]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.20.644475v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Impacts of competition and phenotypic plasticity on the viability of adaptive therapy 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.20.644475v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cancer is heterogeneous and variability in drug sensitivity is widely documented across cancer types. Adaptive therapy is an emerging modality of cancer treatment that leverages this drug resistance heterogeneity to improve therapeutic outcomes. Current standard treatments typically eliminate a large fraction of drug-sensitive cells, leading to drug-resistant relapse due to competitive release. Adaptive therapy aims to retain some drug-sensitive cells, thereby limiting resistant cell growth by ecological competition. While early clinical trials of such a strategy have shown promise, optimisation of adaptive therapy is a subject of active study. Current methods largely assume cell phenotypes to remain constant, even though cell-state transitions could permit drug-sensitive and -resistant phenotypes to interchange and thus escape therapy. We address this gap using a deterministic model of population growth, in which sensitive and resistant cells grow under competition and undergo cell-state transitions. Based on the models steady-state behaviour and temporal dynamics, we identify distinct balances of competition and phenotypic transitions that are suitable for effective adaptive versus constant dose therapy. Our data indicate that under adaptive therapy, models with cell-state transitions show a higher frequency of fluctuations than those without, suggesting that the balance between ecological competition and phenotypic transitions could determine population-level dynamical properties. Our analyses also identify key limitations of applying phenomenological models in clinical practice for therapy design and implementation, particularly when cell-state transitions are involved. These findings provide an overall perspective on the relevance of phenotypic plasticity for emerging cancer treatment strategies using population dynamics as an investigation framework.

Significance StatementDrug-sensitive and -resistant cancer cells can compete with each other within the same tumour, and adaptive therapy exploits this competition to control overall tumour growth. The fact that sensitive and resistant cell types can switch phenotypes complicates the implementation of adaptive therapy. Our ODE-based theoretical ecology framework shows that asymmetric competition favouring sensitive cells generally benefits therapy outcomes, while phenotypic plasticity is usually detrimental. Our model also provides cell population-level indicators that can help predict the underlying balance between competition and plasticity. Phenomenological models are limited by whether their parameters can be reliably identified given scarce data, and our study illuminates the scope of such models in understanding cancer population dynamics and the need for mechanistic modelling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vibishan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hari, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kadelka, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.20.644475</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Impacts of competition and phenotypic plasticity on the viability of adaptive therapy]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.25.645201v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Diet induced insulin resistance is due to induction of PTEN expression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.25.645201v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Insulin resistance is a condition associated with obesity, type 2 diabetes(T2D), hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia and defined by reduced sensitivity to insulin signaling. Molecular causes and early signaling events underlying insulin resistance are not well understood. Here we show that insulin activation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling in insulin target tissues, causes mTORC1 induction of PTEN translation, a negative regulator of PI3K signaling. We hypothesized that insulin resistance is due to insulin dependent induction of PTEN that prevents further increases in PI3K signaling. In a diet induced animal model of obesity and insulin resistance, we show that PTEN levels are increased in fat, muscle, and liver. Hyperinsulinemia and PTEN induction are followed by hyperglycemia, severe glucose intolerance, and hepatic steatosis. In response to chronic hyperinsulinemia, PTEN remains increased, while AKT activity is induced transiently before settling down to a PTEN-high and AKT-low state in the tissues, predicted by computational modeling of the PTEN-AKT feedback loop. Treatment with PTEN and mTORC1 inhibitors prevent and reverse the effect of PTEN induction, rescue insulin resistance and increase PI3K/AKT signaling. Thus, we show that PTEN induction by increased insulin levels elevates feedback inhibition of the pathway causing insulin resistance, its associated phenotypes, and is a potential therapeutic target.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mukherjee, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pancholi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Solomon, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Timaul, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thant, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>MsGriskin, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayatt, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Markov, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>D'Allara, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bekker, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Candelier, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vanaja, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosen, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.25.645201</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Diet induced insulin resistance is due to induction of PTEN expression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.25.645314v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Growth charts of infant visual neurodevelopment generalize across global contexts 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.25.645314v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Normative brain growth charts in early life hold great promise for furthering basic and clinical science. We leverage the rapid, substantial development of visual cortex function that is indexed by visual-evoked potentials (VEP) in electroencephalography to create longitudinal normative growth curves of task-related brain function with 1374 observations contributed by 802 infants (57 to 579 days old) from South Africa, Brazil, and the United States. Site-specific models were cross-validated and showed excellent fits to other sites samples, demonstrating functional growth curves generalize across contexts robustly. Deviations from the normative growth models associated with early environmental and behavioral measures such as prenatal exposures and postnatal cognition. These findings demonstrate the utility of using functional growth charts to understand and potentially act on individual neurodevelopmental trajectories. VEP brain function growth charts represent a new direction for EEG research to support healthy brain development globally.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Margolis, E. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camp, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sobrino, A. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polanczyk, G. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fatori, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khula South Africa Team,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Germina Team,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LABS Team,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>GABA Team,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>1kD EEG Working Group,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>1kD Machine Learning Working Group,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cornelissen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berde, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hensch, T. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nelson, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shephard, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donald, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scheinost, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabard-Durnam, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-26</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.25.645314</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Growth charts of infant visual neurodevelopment generalize across global contexts]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-26</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.24.644676v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrating Interpretable Machine Learning and Multi-omics Systems Biology for Personalized Biomarker Discovery and Drug Repurposing in Alzheimer's Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.24.644676v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alzheimers disease (AD) is characterized by region- and patient-specific molecular heterogeneity, which hinders therapeutic design. In this study, we introduce PRISM-ML (PRecision-medicine using Interpretable Systems and Multiomics with Machine Learning), an open-source integrated analysis pipeline that combines interpretable machine learning with systems biology and electronic health record (EHR) data mining to elucidate the molecular diversity of AD and predict promising drug repurposing opportunities. First, we integrated and harmonized transcriptomic (bulk RNA-seq) and genomic (genome-wide association study) data from 2105 brain samples, each with matched data from the same individual (1363 AD patients, 742 controls; nine tissues), sourced from three independent studies. Random forest classifiers with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) identified patient-specific biomarkers; unsupervised clustering resolved 36 molecularly distinct "subtissues" (clusters of samples); and gene-gene co-expression networks prioritized 262 high-centrality bottleneck genes as putative regulators of dysregulated pathways. Next, knowledge graph-based drug repurposing predicted six FDA-approved drugs that simultaneously target multiple bottleneck genes and multiple AD-relevant pathways. Notably, in a large U.S. de-identified insurance-claims database (n = 364733), exposure to promethazine, one of the candidate drugs, was associated with a 57-62 % lower incidence of AD versus an active antihistamine comparator (adjusted hazard ratio 0.38; inverse-probability weighted 0.43; both p < 0.001), providing real-world support for its repurposing potential. In summary, PRISM-ML, as an explainable multi-omics analysis pipeline, is readily transferable to other complex diseases, advancing precision medicine.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mottaqi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-03-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.03.24.644676</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrating Interpretable Machine Learning and Multi-omics Systems Biology for Personalized Biomarker Discovery and Drug Repurposing in Alzheimer's Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-03-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.03.646931v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
From Lab to Concert Hall: Effects of Live Performance on Neural Entrainment and Engagement 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.03.646931v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Live music performances continue to captivate audiences despite widespread availability of high-quality recordings, yet the neural mechanisms underlying this enhanced experience remain poorly understood. This study investigates the effect of live versus recorded music on neural entrainment using phase-based approaches. 21 participants listened to 2 live and 2 recorded performances of fast and slow movements of J.S. Bachs works for the solo violin in a concert hall setting, while their EEG data were collected. Participants made behavioral ratings of engagement, spontaneity, pleasure, investment, focus, and distraction after each trial. Live performances were rated as more engaging, pleasurable, and spontaneous than recorded performances. Live trials showed significantly higher acoustic-EEG phase-locking than recorded trials in frequencies specific to the tempo of the excerpts. Furthermore, the effect of liveness on phase-locking was linked to increases in pleasure and engagement for live over recorded trials. Control analyses confirmed that the effects of liveness on phase-locking were not explained by low-level acoustic differences between performances. Altogether, results provide the first evidence that live music enhances cerebro-acoustic phase-locking, and that this enhanced entrainment underlies the heightened affective experience of live performance, supporting theories of music as a vehicle for social bonding through shared neural dynamics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Asthagiri, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loui, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.03.646931</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[From Lab to Concert Hall: Effects of Live Performance on Neural Entrainment and Engagement]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.03.647042v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Quantifying the influence of genetic context on duplicated mammalian genes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.03.647042v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Gene duplication is a fundamental part of evolutionary innovation. While single-gene duplications frequently exhibit asymmetric evolutionary rates between paralogs, the extent to which this applies to multi-gene duplications remains unclear. In this study, we investigate the role of genetic context in shaping evolutionary divergence within multi-gene duplications, leveraging microsynteny to differentiate source and target copies. Using a dataset of 193 mammalian genome assemblies and a bird outgroup, we systematically analyze patterns of sequence divergence between duplicated genes and reference orthologs. We find that target copies, those relocated to new genomic environments, exhibit elevated evolutionary rates compared to source copies in the ancestral location. This asymmetry is influenced by the distance between copies and the size of the target copy. We also demonstrate that the polarization of rate asymmetry in paralogs, the "choice" of the slowly evolving copy, is biased towards collective, block-wise polarization in multi-gene duplications. Our findings highlight the importance of genetic context in modulating post-duplication divergence, where differences in cis-regulatory elements and co-expressed gene clusters between source and target copies may be responsible. This study presents a large-scale test of asymmetric evolution in multi-gene duplications, offering new insight into how genome architecture shapes functional diversification of paralogs.

Significance statementAfter a gene is duplicated, reduced selective constraints can lead the two copies to rapidly diverge, with one copy often evolving faster and occasionally gaining a new function. We quantify the influence of genetic context in choosing which copy of a duplicated gene has an elevated substitution rate. In a representative dataset of 193 mammalian genomes, we found strong evidence that gene copies pasted into new genomic locations tend to evolve faster than the corresponding copies in ancestral locations, suggesting an important role for the regulatory environment. The asymmetry in evolutionary rates of duplicated genes persists even for very large multigenic duplications, up to the scale of megabases, indicating that regulatory interactions frequently reach farther than previously thought.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moffett, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Falcon-Cortes, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.03.647042</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Quantifying the influence of genetic context on duplicated mammalian genes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.04.647117v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Incorporating special interests to investigate the language system in autism: A feasibility pilot fMRI study 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.04.647117v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Most autistic individuals have sustained, focused interests in particular topics or activities. In some cases, these special interests have been shown to motivate communicative behaviors, a domain in which many autistic individuals experience challenges. We conducted a pilot study with 15 autistic children (ages 8.18 - 13.27 years, mean(SD)= 11.17(1.62), 3 female/11 male/1 nonbinary), comparing brain responses elicited by short narratives tailored to individuals special interests to responses elicited by generic, non-tailored narratives. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found that autistic children did not show typical language responses to generic narratives. However, they did show heightened responses to the narratives that incorporated their special interests relative to the generic narratives in language regions and in regions associated with reward and self-reference. Brain responses for personalized narratives were also more consistent across children than responses for the generic narratives. These results suggest that personalizing stimuli by incorporating special interests might be a promising approach for neuroimaging in autistic participants.

LAY SUMMARYIn a pilot sample of autistic children, we found that listening to short narratives tailored to each childs special interest elicited higher responses in the brain than listening to non-personalized narratives. Brain responses across children were also more similar for the special interest narratives. Thus, personalizing stimuli to special interests may be a promising approach for neuroimaging studies of autism.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Olson, H. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, K. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nishith, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabrieli, J. D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>D'Mello, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.04.647117</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Incorporating special interests to investigate the language system in autism: A feasibility pilot fMRI study]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.09.647816v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bactofilins are essential spatial organizers of peptidoglycan insertion in the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.09.647816v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi has a distinctive pattern of growth. Newly-born cells elongate by primarily inserting peptidoglycan at mid-cell, while in longer cells, additional insertion sites form at the one-quarter and three-quarter positions along the cell length. It is not known how peptidoglycan insertion is concentrated at these locations in B. burgdorferi. In other bacteria, multi-protein complexes are known to synthesize new peptidoglycan and are often organized by cytoskeletal proteins. We show here that B. burgdorferis zonal concentration of peptidoglycan insertion requires BB0538 (BbbA) and BB0245 (BbbB), two members of the bactofilin class of cytoskeletal proteins. Bactofilin depletion redistributes peptidoglycan insertion along the cell length. Prolonged bactofilin depletion arrested growth in culture and induced extensive cell blebbing, indicating that B. burgdorferi bactofilins are essential for viability. Fluorescent protein fusions of BbbA and BbbB localized to areas of peptidoglycan insertion, with BbbB accumulation preceding peptidoglycan insertion at these sites. Similar to peptidoglycan insertion, BbbB localization was disrupted upon depletion of BbbA. Our results show that BbbB relies on BbbA for its localization, and that together, BbbA and BbbB direct the spatial patterning of new peptidoglycan insertion in B. burgdorferi.

IMPORTANCEThe spirochetal bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi causes Lyme disease, the most prevalent vector-borne infection in North America and Europe. Cellular replication, which requires growth and division of the peptidoglycan cell wall, facilitates B. burgdorferi transmission to, and dissemination within, new hosts. Cellular replication is therefore essential for pathogenesis. Bactofilins regulate peptidoglycan-related processes in several bacteria. However, these functions are typically non-essential for cellular replication, as bactofilin-encoding genes can be readily deleted in multiple bacterial species. In contrast, we show that the B. burgdorferi bactofilins BbbA and BbbB are essential for cellular viability and direct zonal peptidoglycan insertion. Our findings broaden the spectrum of known bactofilin functions and advance our understanding of how peptidoglycan insertion is regulated in this unusual, medically important spirochete bacterium.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zinck, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carracoi, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kloos, Z. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wachter, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schwartz, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stewart, P. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jacobs-Wagner, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosa, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takacs, C. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.09.647816</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bactofilins are essential spatial organizers of peptidoglycan insertion in the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.09.648020v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Enhanced Activity of Apramycin and Apramycin-Based Combinations Against Mycobacteroides abscessus 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.09.648020v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundMycobacteroides abscessus are rapidly growing non-tuberculous mycobacteria that cause chronic lung and soft tissue infections. Treatment options are often severely limited due to intrinsic resistance to most antimicrobials. Amikacin has historically been a mainstay of combination treatment regimens. However, irreversible hearing loss and vestibular toxicity have led to a search for alternative agents. Apramycin is a novel aminoglycoside currently in phase I clinical trials that may offer lower potential for ototoxic and renal toxic side effects.

ObjectivesThe goal of this study was to compare apramycins in vitro activity with amikacin and other aminoglycosides against a large collection of M. abscessus clinical isolates, both alone and in combination with clofazimine or linezolid. We also tested the activity of apramycin against a more limited collection of other species of rapidly growing mycobacteria.

MethodsAnalysis was performed using reference broth microdilution minimal inhibitory concentration testing, inkjet printer-assisted checkerboard assays, and time-kill assays.

ResultsAgainst M. abscessus, the MIC50/90 for apramycin (2 {micro}g/mL) was 8-fold lower than for amikacin (16 {micro}g/mL). Plazomicin was inactive, and organisms were rarely susceptible to tobramycin. Synergy was not detected by checkerboard assay. In time-kill studies, clofazimine modestly potentiated activity of apramycin and. to a lesser extent, amikacin. Apramycin and amikacin showed delayed bacterial killing that either achieved or approached a bactericidal threshold. Apramycin was similarly potent against other rapidly growing mycobacteria tested.

ConclusionsApramycin exhibits more potent in vitro activity against a diverse set of M. abscessus and other rapidly growing mycobacteria than approved aminoglycosides.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trueslon, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stuart, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Doherty, G. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kirby, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.09.648020</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Enhanced Activity of Apramycin and Apramycin-Based Combinations Against Mycobacteroides abscessus]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.15.648854v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dynamic Pathway of Guanidine-III Riboswitch Folding Revealed by Single-Molecule FRET: Mg2+-Assisted Preorganization and Ligand-Induced Kinetic Trapping 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.15.648854v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Riboswitches are structured RNA elements that regulate gene expression by sensing and binding small molecules. The guanidine-III riboswitch, a critical bacterial regulator responding to guanidine toxicity, undergoes precise conformational changes that remain poorly characterized at a dynamic, mechanistic level. In this study, we employed single-molecule Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET) coupled with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to delineate how the guanidine-III riboswitch transitions among distinct conformational states. We identify three principal states [-] an extended (E-state), a compacted prefolded intermediate (P-state), and a folded pseudoknot structure (F-state) [-] with rapid interconversion in the absence of ligand. Magnesium ions significantly stabilize intermediate states via a cooperative, preorganization mechanism, enhancing ligand binding efficiency. Binding of guanidine drastically suppresses the reverse transitions, kinetically trapping the riboswitch into its active folded state primarily through a conformational selection mechanism, with additional contributions from induced-fit dynamics. This work illuminates the unique dynamic pathway by which the guanidine-III riboswitch integrates ionic and ligand cues, ensuring precise gene regulatory responses in bacteria.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jiang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bian, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zou, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ji, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ren, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiao, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pan, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.15.648854</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dynamic Pathway of Guanidine-III Riboswitch Folding Revealed by Single-Molecule FRET: Mg2+-Assisted Preorganization and Ligand-Induced Kinetic Trapping]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.19.649665v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
STPath: A Generative Foundation Model for Integrating Spatial Transcriptomics and Whole Slide Images 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.19.649665v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Spatial transcriptomics (ST) has shown remarkable promise in pathology applications, shedding light on the spatial organization of gene expression and its relationship to the tumor microenvironment. However, its clinical adoption remains constrained due to the limited scalability of current sequencing technologies. While recent methods attempt to infer ST from whole slide images (WSIs) using pretrained image encoders, they remain restricted by limited gene coverage, organ-specific training, and the need for dataset-specific fine-tuning. In light of this, we introduce STPath, a generative foundation model pretrained on a large-scale collection of WSIs paired with ST profiles. This extensive pretraining enables STPath to directly predict gene expression across 38,984 genes and 17 organs without requiring downstream fine-tuning. STPath integrates multiple data modalities, including histological images, gene expressions, organ type, and sequencing technology information, within a novel geometry-aware Transformer architecture. Unlike previous methods that directly map WSIs to gene expression, STPath is trained using a masked gene expression prediction objective guided by tailored noise schedules, effectively balancing between capturing gene-gene dependencies and performing high-quality predictions. We evaluate STPath across 6 tasks spanning 23 datasets and 14 biomarkers, including gene expression prediction, spot imputation, spatial clustering, biomarker prediction, gene mutation prediction, and survival prediction. These results demonstrate STPaths strong ability to infer spatially resolved gene expression and reveal crucial pathological structures within tissue samples, underscoring its promise for scalable ST-based pathology applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Huang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Babadi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ying, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jin, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.19.649665</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[STPath: A Generative Foundation Model for Integrating Spatial Transcriptomics and Whole Slide Images]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.21.649758v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Non-duality in brain and experience of advanced meditators - Key role for Intrinsic Neural Timescales 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.21.649758v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Distinguishing between self (internal) and environment (external) is fundamental to human experience, with ordinary waking consciousness structured around this duality. However, contemplative traditions describe non-dual states where this distinction dissolves. Despite its significance, the neural basis of non-duality remains underexplored. Using psychological questionnaires for non-duality experience and EEG-based intrinsic neural timescales as measured by the autocorrelation window (ACW), we studied non-duality in advanced meditators, novice meditators, and controls. All subjects underwent breath-watching meditation (internal attention) and a visual oddball cognitive task (external attention); this allowed us to conceptualize non-duality as a lack of distinction between internal and external attention. Our key findings include: (a) advanced meditators report greater experience of non-duality during breath-watching (psychological scales), (b) EEG-based ACW is longer during internal attention (breath watch) than external attention (oddball task) in all subjects taken together, (c) advanced meditators show no such distinction with equal duration of their ACW during both internal and external attention (we replicated this finding in another dataset of expert meditators); (d) the advanced meditators internal-external ACW difference correlated with their experience of the degree of non-duality (psychological scales) during internal attention. Together, these findings suggest that the brains intrinsic neural timescales during internal and external attention play a key role in mediating the experience of non-duality in advanced meditators.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Malipeddi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sasidharan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ventura, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venugopal, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bauer, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tewarie, P. K. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ravindra, P. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mehrotra, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>John, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Subramaniam, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laureys, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kutty, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Northoff, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.21.649758</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Non-duality in brain and experience of advanced meditators - Key role for Intrinsic Neural Timescales]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.25.650734v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Hypoxia Exacerbates Kir2.1 Channel Dysfunction in an Andersen-Tawil Syndrome Variant Through a SUMO-Dependent Mechanism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.25.650734v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundAndersen-Tawil Syndrome type 1 (ATS1) is a multisystem channelopathy that predisposes patients to ventricular dysrhythmias and increases the risk of sudden cardiac death. ATS1 arises from loss-of-function mutations in Kir2.1, the inward rectifying potassium channel responsible for most of IK1 in ventricular cardiomyocytes. IK1 is suppressed by SUMOylation, a post- translational modification upregulated in hypoxia, a known proarrhythmic stimulus. We investigated whether current from the ATS1-linked variant Kir2.1-R67Q is inhibited by hypoxia and whether this suppression can be reversed by pharmacological inhibition of the SUMO pathway.

MethodsWe used patch-clamp recording to measure IK1 and Kir2.1 currents under acute hypoxia, with and without the SUMO pathway inhibitor TAK-981. To quantify SUMOylation stoichiometry, we applied single molecule photobleaching. A multidisciplinary approach combining electrophysiology, molecular modeling, and optogenetic phosphoinositide was used to measure the impact of Kir2.1- R67Q and SUMOylation on channel interactions with phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2), a required gating cofactor.

ResultsKir2.1 can be modified by up to two SUMO proteins attached to diagonally opposite subunits, with each SUMOylation event reducing current by [~]20%. Heterozygouse channels containing two R67Q subunits were more susceptible to hypoxic suppression than wild type. TAK-981 blocked hypoxic inhibition of IK1 in ventricular cardiomyocytes and abolished Kir2.1 SUMOylation. In cells expressing Kir2.1-R67Q, TAK-981 significantly increased currents and mitigated hypoxic suppression. Computational modeling and optogenetic dephosphorylation revealed that both the R67Q mutation and converge to disrupt Kir2.1- PIP2 interactions, producing synergistic inhibition of channel function.

ConclusionsHypoxia-induced SUMOylation and the R67Q mutation synergistically suppress Kir2.1 activity by impairing channel-PIP2 interactions. TAK-981 restores IK1 by preventing SUMOylation under hypoxic conditions and enhancing current through Kir2.1-R67Q channels. These findings support a two-hit model of arrhythmogenesis in ATS1 and identify SUMO pathway inhibition as a potential therapeutic strategy to reduce arrhythmic risk in affected patients.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chandrashekar, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yauch, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scholl, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gada, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kawano, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plant, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-04-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.25.650734</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hypoxia Exacerbates Kir2.1 Channel Dysfunction in an Andersen-Tawil Syndrome Variant Through a SUMO-Dependent Mechanism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-04-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651724v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Characterization of a potential antibiotic target site on the ribosome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651724v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The ribosome is a known antibiotic target, where various classes of small molecules impact different stages of translation. There are multiple modes of function, such as interfering with the decoding process, impeding movement of the nascent protein chain and occluding the catalytic center. In the present study, we used a range of computational methods to demonstrate a new mechanism by which small molecules may impede translation in the bacterial ribosome. Specifically, we use a computational screen to identify small molecules that can bind the ribosomal protein L33 in a region that is generally conserved in bacterial species. In addition, the binding position allows it to introduce a steric obstacle that impedes the P/E hybrid-state formation steps. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we show how binding to L33 can slow down the kinetics of tRNA molecules on the ribosome. Since L33 is not present in the cytosolic human ribosome and has a distinct sequence in the human mitochondrial ribosome, this binding site may serve as a novel target for future antibiotic and antimicrobial design efforts. This analysis provides insights into how to optimize the inhibitory effects of L33-targeting molecules, in order to develop a new class of broad-spectrum antibiotics/antimicrobials.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Golstein, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byju, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohanty, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.02.651724</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Characterization of a potential antibiotic target site on the ribosome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651948v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Exploring C1 substrate cofeeding in Eubacterium limosum with AneVO, a low-cost anaerobic parallel bioreactor platform 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651948v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Acetogenic bacteria have emerged as attractive biocatalysts for renewable biochemical production, using the highly efficient Wood-Ljungdahl pathway to convert a range of sustainable single-carbon (C1) feedstocks. The major challenge is their energy-constrained anaerobic lifestyle, which results in slow growth and limits the product spectrum. To overcome this limitation, here we investigate substrate co-metabolism in the acetogen Eubacterium limosum, cofeeding either carbon monoxide (CO) or glucose alongside the primary C1 substrate (methanol or formate). To increase experimental throughput, we developed AneVO, a parallel mini bioreactor system based on eVOLVER that enables benchtop anaerobic batch and fed-batch cultivation, along with continuous delivery of anaerobic gas blends. With all substrate pairs tested, E. limosum grew faster and reached 52-254% higher cell densities with cofeeding, while maintaining or improving the volumetric uptake rate of the main C1 substrate. Product formation also improved, with an increase in volumetric acetate productivity from glucose cofeeding of 2.2-fold with formate and 2.4-fold with methanol, and 3-fold from CO cofeeding with methanol. Together these results validate AneVO as a low-cost platform for convenient benchtop cultivation of strict anaerobic microbes in multiple growth modes, and present a strategy for enhancing C1 bioconversion rates in E. limosum, an emerging model acetogen.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hoyt, K. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gasparrini, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sliter, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hart, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khalil, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woolston, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.02.651948</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Exploring C1 substrate cofeeding in Eubacterium limosum with AneVO, a low-cost anaerobic parallel bioreactor platform]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.01.651717v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evaluation of Nanopore direct RNA sequencing updates for modification detection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.01.651717v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Nanopore technology can directly sequence intact RNA molecules, offering a unique capability to read native modifications. Oxford Nanopore Technologies recently updated its direct RNA sequencing technology from RNA002 to RNA004 chemistry. This update included an improved basecaller (Dorado) for increased sequencing accuracy, and ionic current models for de novo detection of four RNA modifications. Using a single RNA extraction from GM12878 B-lymphocyte cell line, we compared RNA002 and RNA004 sequencing chemistries and evaluated Dorado modification calling accuracy. We computed U-to-C mismatches, previously used to identify putative pseudouridine sites, and ran m6anet for identifying putative N6-methyladenosine sites. Dorado results for each respective modification showed both global and site-specific differences when compared to RNA002 results. We used DRS data from in vitro transcription of GM12878 genomic DNA as well as synthetic oligonucleotides to evaluate Dorado modification calling performance. Dorados pseudouridine model achieved 96-98% for both accuracy and F1-score. Similarly, Dorados N6-methyladenosine model achieved 94-98% accuracy, 96-99% F1-score. Our results demonstrate that Nanopore Direct RNA sequencing could simultaneously detect pseudouridine, N6-methyladenosine, 5-methylcytosine, and inosine modifications on individual mRNA strands. It is critical to validate these calls using orthogonal methods (e.g., Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometry) for increased confidence.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=81 SRC="FIGDIR/small/651717v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Esfahani, N. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stein, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akeson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tzadikario, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.01.651717</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evaluation of Nanopore direct RNA sequencing updates for modification detection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.649190v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Understanding the physical processes behind DNA-DNA proximity ligation assays 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.649190v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In the last decade, DNA-DNA proximity ligation assays opened powerful new ways to study the 3D organization of genomes and have become a mainstay experimental technology. Yet many aspects of these experiments remain poorly understood. We study the inner workings of DNA-DNA proximity ligation assays through numerical experiments and theoretical modeling. Chromosomes are modeled at nucleosome resolution and evolved in time via molecular dynamics. A virtual Hi-C experiment reproduces, in-silico, the different steps of the Hi-C protocol, including: crosslinking of chromatin to an underlying proteic matrix, enzymatic digestion of DNA, and subsequent proximity ligation of DNA open ends. The protocol is simulated on ensembles of different structures as well as individual structures, enabling the construction of ligation maps and the calculation of ligation probabilities as functions of genomic and Euclidean distance. The methods help to assess the effect of the many variables of the Hi-C experiment and of subsequent data processing methods on the quality of the final results.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zubillaga Herrera, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Das, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burack, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.02.649190</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Understanding the physical processes behind DNA-DNA proximity ligation assays]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.30.651114v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multiomic clocks to predict phenotypic age in mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.30.651114v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Biological age refers to a persons overall health in aging, as distinct from their chronological age. Diverse measures of biological age, referred to as "clocks", have been developed in recent years and enable risk assessments, and an estimation of the efficacy of longevity interventions in animals and humans. While most clocks are trained to predict chronological age, clocks have been developed to predict more complex composite biological age outcomes, at least in humans. These composite outcomes can be made up of a combination of phenotypic data, chronological age, and disease or mortality risk. Here, we develop the first such composite biological age measure for mice: the mouse phenotypic age model (Mouse PhenoAge). This outcome is based on frailty measures, complete blood counts, and mortality risk in a longitudinally assessed cohort of male and female C57BL/6 mice. We then develop clocks to predict Mouse PhenoAge, based on multi-omic models using metabolomic and DNA methylation data. Our models accurately predict Mouse PhenoAge, and residuals of the models are associated with remaining lifespan, even for mice of the same chronological age. These methods offer novel ways to accurately predict mortality in laboratory mice thus reducing the need for lengthy and costly survival studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vera, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffin, P. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leigh, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kras, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramos, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bishof, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Butler, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chwalek, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vogel, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kane, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sinclair, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.04.30.651114</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multiomic clocks to predict phenotypic age in mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651738v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A spatial code governs olfactory receptor choice and aligns sensory maps in the nose and brain 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651738v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Although topographical maps organize many peripheral sensory systems, it remains unclear whether olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) choose which of the [~]1100 odor receptors (ORs) to express based upon their spatial location in the olfactory epithelium (OE) or instead ORs are scattered randomly. Here we reveal that each OR is expressed at a precise mean position along the OE dorsoventral axis, thereby instantiating a receptor map. This patterning reflects the differential use, by precursors and mature OSNs, of a coherent gene expression program controlled by a spatially-varying retinoic acid gradient; this program -- which includes key transcription factors and axon guidance genes -- translates position into a spatially appropriate distribution of OR choices and aligns the epithelial map of OR identity with the glomerular map present in the olfactory bulb. These results identify a transcriptional code that distinguishes and spatially organizes the vast array of sensory channels that comprise the olfactory system.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Brann, D. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsukahara, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tau, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalloor, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lubash, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thamarai Kannan, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klimpert, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kollo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Escamilla-Del-Arenal, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bintu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bozza, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Datta, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.02.651738</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A spatial code governs olfactory receptor choice and aligns sensory maps in the nose and brain]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651947v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Toolbox for the Personalization of Plasmonic Photothermal Therapy in Orthotopic Mouse Tumor Models 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651947v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The clinical translation of plasmonic photothermal therapy is hindered by a lack of reliable personalization protocols. In this study we implemented a non-invasive toolbox to assess how tumor optical and hemodynamic properties can serve as markers of progression and be used in personalized simulations to extrapolate therapy conditions, both necessary steps for individualized treatment planning. The toolbox integrated near-infrared diffuse optical monitoring techniques, thermal imaging, ex vivo assays and physical simulations. It was applied to patient-derived orthotopic clear cell renal cell carcinoma mouse models, at 1 cm3 volumes, providing clinically more relevant conditions than those of commonly used models. Gold nanorods (GNRs) with absorption tuned to the optical window and fixed irradiation conditions were employed. Therapy safety and efficacy were established using standard methods and pre-GNR injection, pre-therapy and post-therapy measurements obtained with the toolbox were analyzed to model therapy progression. Results revealed an association between tumor water concentration and accumulated GNR fraction in the tumor, a correlation between the pre-therapy tumor absorption coefficient and the maximum skin temperature reached, and a link between simulated treated volume estimates and progression-free survival, among other findings. These results demonstrate the capabilities of optical measurements to model the outcome and explain the mechanisms involved in the therapy, advancing towards a personalization strategy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Fernandez Esteberena, P. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vilches, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morales-Dalmau, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mireles, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martinez-Lozano, M. d. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Miguel, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casanovas, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quidant, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Durduran, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.02.651947</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Toolbox for the Personalization of Plasmonic Photothermal Therapy in Orthotopic Mouse Tumor Models]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.15.654129v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Whole-brain chemosensory responses of both C. elegans sexes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.15.654129v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sexually-dimorphic neural circuits play a critical role in shaping sex-specific animal behaviors. Maps of the structural dimorphisms in these circuits have been explored by analyzing "synaptic connectomes", electron micrograph reconstructions of synaptic connectivity. Nevertheless, recent studies in the model organism C. elegans have shown little to no correlation between the synaptic connectome and dynamic neural activity. Therefore, the extent of sexual dimorphism in functional neural activity remains unknown. To determine the extent of functional sexual-dimorphisms in C. elegans we compared activity, neuron-by-neuron, across all neurons in the heads of both sexes. To sample a broad view of responses to different sensory modalities, we tested a diverse panel of ethologically-relevant olfactory, gustatory, and chemical stimuli, representing both attractive and aversive cues. We found that nearly every sensory neuron responded dimorphically to at least one cue and monomorphically to other cues, indicating that sexually-dimorphic circuits are pervasive and stimulus dependent. This dimorphic and monomorphic activity was present to a lesser extent in downstream interneurons and even less so in motoneurons, implicating sensory neurons as the primary source and location of sexually-dimorphic activity. Comparing the functional activity we measured to the published synaptic connectomes of both sexes revealed that sexual dimorphism in functional connectivity was distinct from and complementary to sexual dimorphism in synaptic connectivity. Our results provide a first-of-its-kind comparison of whole-brain dynamics between sexes at the level of single neurons, serving as an extensive resource for further investigations of functional sex differences.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Seyedolmohadesin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torkashvand, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rasouli, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kalinski, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cook, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schroeder, F. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yemini, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.15.654129</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Whole-brain chemosensory responses of both C. elegans sexes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.22.655509v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PSMtags improve peptide sequencing and throughput in sensitive proteomics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.22.655509v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mass spectrometry-based proteomics enables comprehensive characterization of protein abundance, function, and interactions. Label-free approaches are simple to implement but challenging to scale to thousands of samples per day. Multiplexed techniques, such as plexDIA, can address these limitations but remain restricted by the lack of mass tags optimized for data-independent acquisition (DIA) workflows. Here, we present a systematic approach screening a library of 576 compounds that identifies several small molecules that, when conjugated to peptides, improve their detection and sequence identification by mass spectrometry. The lead molecule, PSMtag, substantially increases the detection of fragment b-ions, which increases the confidence of sequence identification and enhances de novo sequencing. PSMtags allow 9-plexDIA, using only stable isotopes of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen. As a result, it allows simultaneously increasing proteome coverage and sample throughput for plexDIA workflows without compromising quantitative accuracy. We demonstrate 240 samples-per-day with 9-plexDIA, while acquiring 28,359 protein data points in the same time label-free methods acquire 4,340. Our approach constitutes an expandable framework for designing mass tags to overcome existing limitations in multiplexed proteomics and provides plexDIA reagents capable of analyzing over 1,000 samples per day when using 10 minute runs. By facilitating higher throughput and improved identification, this innovation holds significant potential for accelerating proteomic studies across diverse biological and clinical applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeh, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sipe, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barnes-Seeman, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adamo, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDonnell, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agius, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friedrich, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pang, W. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shiva Raju, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vuong, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yesilcimen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pentelute, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.22.655509</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PSMtags improve peptide sequencing and throughput in sensitive proteomics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.22.655512v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
JMod: Joint modeling of mass spectra for empowering multiplexed DIA proteomics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.22.655512v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The throughput of mass spectrometry (MS) proteomics can be increased substantially by multiplexing that enables parallelization of data acquisition. Such parallelization in the mass domain (plexDIA) and the time domain (timePlex) increases the density of mass spectra and the overlap between ions originating from different precursors, potentially complicating their analysis. To enhance sequence identification and quantification from such spectra, we developed an open source software for Joint Modeling of mass spectra: JMod. It uses the intrinsic structure in the spectra and explicitly models overlapping peaks as linear superpositions of their components. This modeling enabled performing 9-plexDIA using 2 Da offset PSMtags by deconvolving the resulting overlapping isotopic envelopes in both MS1 and MS2 space. The results demonstrate 9-fold higher throughput with preserved quantitative accuracy and coverage depth. This support for smaller mass offsets increases multiplexing capacity and thus proteomic throughput for a given plexDIA tag, and we demonstrate this generalizability with diethyl labeling. By supporting enhanced decoding of DIA spectra multiplexed in the mass and time domains, JMod provides an open and flexible software that enables increasing the throughput of sensitive proteomics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McDonnell, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wamsley, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Derks, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sipe, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeh, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.22.655512</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[JMod: Joint modeling of mass spectra for empowering multiplexed DIA proteomics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.22.655515v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Increasing mass spectrometry throughput using time-encoded sample multiplexing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.22.655515v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) can enable precise and accurate quantification of analytes at high-sensitivity, but the rate at which samples can be analyzed remains limiting. Throughput can be increased by multiplexing samples in the mass domain with plexDIA, yet multiplexing along one dimension will only linearly scale throughput with plex. To enable combinatorial-scaling of proteomics throughput, we developed a complementary multiplexing strategy in the time domain, termed  timePlex. timePlex staggers and overlaps the separation periods of individual samples. This strategy is orthogonal to isotopic multiplexing, which enables combinatorial multiplexing in mass and time domains when paired together, and thus multiplicatively increased throughput. We demonstrate this with 3-timePlex and 3-plexDIA, enabling the multiplexing of 9 samples per LC-MS run, and 3-timePlex and 9-plexDIA exceeding 500 samples / day with a combinatorial 27-plex. Crucially, timePlex supports sensitive analyses, including of single cells. These results establish timePlex as a methodology for label-free multiplexing and combinatorial scaling of the throughput of LC-MS proteomics. We project this combined approach will eventually enable an increase in throughput exceeding 1,000 samples / day.



O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=97 SRC="FIGDIR/small/655515v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Derks, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McDonnell, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wamsley, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stewart, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeh, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Specht, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.22.655515</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Increasing mass spectrometry throughput using time-encoded sample multiplexing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.22.655553v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Obesity dysregulates feeding-evoked response dynamics in hypothalamic satiety neurons 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.22.655553v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Melanocortin-4 receptor-expressing neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVHMC4R) integrate hunger-promoting and hunger-suppressing signals to regulate satiety. Food consumption-evoked responses in PVHMC4R neurons increase gradually during meal consumption to promote satiety, and disrupting this process drives massive obesity. These critical satiety neurons are strongly affected by a high-fat diet, yet the impact on their functional properties remains unknown. We used fiber photometry to track PVHMC4R neurons responses to the consumption of drops of milkshake in animals fed a chow diet or a high-fat diet (HFD), both after obesity was established and after its reversal. PVHMC4R neurons in HFD-fed animals showed greater consumption-evoked responses than chow-fed animals at the early stages of meal consumption, and these responses did not increase further during the meal. HFD-fed animals also showed reduced licking vigor and motivation to consume Ensure. Switching HFD-fed obese animals to a normal chow diet (NCD) re-engaged the motivation to consume Ensure, partially restoring early-meal neural responses to a lower level, but did not restore the increase in consumption-evoked response magnitude across the meal. These findings highlight functional alterations in hypothalamic satiety-promoting neurons in obesity and provide insight into the pathological neural consequences of an obesogenic environment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Porniece, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ausfahl, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, S. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andermann, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.22.655553</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Obesity dysregulates feeding-evoked response dynamics in hypothalamic satiety neurons]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.24.655918v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Energy Constraints and Neural Strategy Transitions in Alzheimer's: A Game-Theoretic Model 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.24.655918v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While many mechanisms have been proposed to drive Alzheimers disease, particularly the accumulation of amyloid plaques and hyperphosphorylation of tau proteins, emerging evidence suggests that they may be the byproducts of earlier damage rather than initiating events. Instead, metabolic dysfunction and the inability of neural cells to support their energetic demands may be a more plausible trigger for subsequent pathological cascade (the neuron energy crisis hypothesis). Here we highlight how type 2 diabetes (T2D) can contribute to neurodegeneration by impairing brain energy metabolism. We present a game-theoretic framework, where neurons face trade-offs between energy efficiency and information fidelity. We show that under metabolic stress, neural networks can evolve toward smaller group sizes that prioritize energy efficiency over information quality, which may underlie the observed collapse of cognitive capacity during neurodegeneration. We conclude with a discussion of interventions, ranging from antidiabetic drugs to cognitive engagement and sensory stimulation, aimed at reducing metabolic stress and preserving cognitive function.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kareva, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karev, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.24.655918</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Energy Constraints and Neural Strategy Transitions in Alzheimer's: A Game-Theoretic Model]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.29.656728v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ubiquitin-Proteasome System Dysregulation in Alzheimer's Disease Impacts Protein Abundance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.29.656728v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alzheimers disease (AD) is a relentlessly progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disorder associated with widespread aberrant proteomic changes. The full extent of protein dysfunctions in AD and their impact on cellular physiology remains unknown. Here, we used plexDIA, an approach that parallelizes the acquisition of samples and peptides, to characterize proteomic changes in AD. Using human dorsolateral prefrontal cortex tissue, we identified 281 differentially abundant proteins in AD. By systematically analyzing cellular compartment-specific shifts in protein abundance, we identified an AD-specific decrease in levels of the 20S proteasome, the catalytic core of the cells primary protein degradation pathway. This alteration was accompanied by widespread decreases in proteasome subunit stoichiometries. Many proteasome substrate proteins were negatively correlated with 20S levels and increased in AD, suggesting that reduced 20S levels leads to abnormal protein accumulation. By analyzing proteins increased in AD, we identify key properties of such proteins. Namely, they have highly specific subcellular localizations and fast degradation rates, they contain signal sequences that allow them to be targeted for proteasomal degradation, and they are targeted by quality control pathways that recognize mislocalized proteins. Furthermore, we identify coherent sets of ubiquitin system enzymes, proteins that target substrates for proteasomal degradation, whose levels robustly discriminate AD from non-AD samples. One subset exhibited consistent increases in AD, while another exhibited consistent decreases, revealing complex alterations to the ubiquitin system in AD. Taken together, our results suggest that decreased ubiquitin-proteasome system capacity and impaired clearance of short-lived and mislocalized proteins contribute substantially to proteopathic burden in AD.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Collins, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Friedrich, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Elcheikhali, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stewart, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Derks, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Connors Stewart, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Altig, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Melloni, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petelski, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oakley, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hyman, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.29.656728</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ubiquitin-Proteasome System Dysregulation in Alzheimer's Disease Impacts Protein Abundance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656721v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Could malaria mosquitoes be controlled by periodic releases of transgenic mosquitocidal Metarhizium pingshaense fungus? A mathematical modeling approach 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656721v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Insect pathogenic fungi offer a promising alternative to chemical insecticides for controlling insecticide resistant mosquitoes. One proposed method involves releasing male Anopheles mosquitoes contaminated with transgenic Metarhizium pingshaense (Met-Hybrid), to lethally infecting females during mating. This study presents a novel deterministic mathematical model to evaluate the impact of this control approach in malaria-endemic areas. The model incorporates two fungus transmission pathways: mating-based transmission and indirect transmission through contact with fungus-colonized mosquito cadavers. We found the fungus cannot establish in the mosquito population without transmission from infected cadavers (in this scenario, the reproduction number of the model is zero). However, if transmission from colonized cadavers is possible, the fungus can persist in the local mosquito population when the reproduction number exceeds one. Simulations of periodic releases of infected male mosquitoes, parameterized using Met-Hybrid-exposed mosquito data from Burkina Faso, show that an 86% reduction in the local female mosquito population can be achieved by releasing 10 Met-Hybrid-exposed male mosquitoes per wild mosquito every three days over six months. This matches the efficiency of some genetic mosquito control approaches. However, a 90% reduction in the wild mosquito population requires, for instance, daily releases of the fungal-treated mosquitoes in a 6:1 ratio for about 5 months, proving less efficient than some genetic approaches. This study concludes that fungal programs with periodic releases of infected males may complement other methods or serve as an alternative to genetic-based mosquito control methods, where regulatory, ethical, or public acceptance concerns restrict genetically-modified mosquito releases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pant, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bilgo, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mitra, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Safdar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diabate, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>St. Leger, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gumel, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-05-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.28.656721</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Could malaria mosquitoes be controlled by periodic releases of transgenic mosquitocidal Metarhizium pingshaense fungus? A mathematical modeling approach]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-05-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656653v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Neural Spectral Prediction for Structure Elucidation with Tandem Mass Spectrometry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656653v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Structural elucidation using untargeted tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) has played a critical role in advancing scientific discovery [1, 2]. However, differentiating molecular fragmentation patterns between isobaric structures remains a prominent challenge in metabolomics [3-10], drug discovery [11-13], and reaction screening [14-17], presenting a significant barrier to the cost-effective and rapid identification of unknown molecular structures. Here, we present a geometric deep learning model, ICEBERG, that simulates high-energy collision-induced dissociation in mass spectrometry to generate chemically plausible fragments and their relative intensities with awareness of collision energies and polarities. We utilize ICEBERG predictions to facilitate structure elucidation by ranking a set of candidate structures based on the similarity between their predicted in silico MS/MS spectra and an experimental MS/MS spectrum of interest. This integrated elucidation pipeline enables state-of-the-art performance in compound annotation, with 40% top-1 accuracy on the NIST20 [M+H]+ adduct subset and with 92% of correct structures appearing in the top ten predictions in the same dataset. It achieves 46% top-1 and 86% top-10 accuracies when tested on the open-access MassSpecGym benchmark, and outperforms SIRIUS on a recently released test set with previously uncharacterized structures. We demonstrate several real-world case studies, including identifying clinical biomarkers of depression and tuberculous meningitis, annotating an aqueous abiotic degradation product of the pesticide thiophanate methyl, disambiguating isobaric products in pooled reaction screening, and annotating biosynthetic pathways in Withania somnifera. Overall, this deep learning-based paradigm for structural elucidation enables rapid molecular annotation from complex mixtures, driving discoveries across diverse scientific domains.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manjrekar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahjour, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Avila-Pacheco, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Provenzano, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reynolds, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lederbauer, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mashin, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldman, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weng, J.-K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plata, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clish, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coley, C. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.28.656653</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Neural Spectral Prediction for Structure Elucidation with Tandem Mass Spectrometry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656708v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Projected warming disrupts embryonic development and hatch timing in Antarctic fish 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.28.656708v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Rising ocean temperatures pose significant threats to marine ectotherms. Sensitivity to temperature change varies across life stages, with embryos often being less tolerant to thermal perturbation than adults. Antarctic notothenioid fishes evolved to occupy a narrow, cold thermal regime (-2 to +2{degrees}C) as the high-latitude Southern Ocean (SO) cooled to its present icy temperatures, and they are particularly vulnerable to small temperature changes, which makes them ideal sentinel species for assessing climate change impacts. Here, we detail how predicted warming of the SO may affect embryonic development in the Antarctic bullhead notothen, Notothenia coriiceps. Experimental embryos were incubated at +4{degrees}C, a temperature projected for the high-latitude SO within the next 100-200 years under high emission climate models, whereas control embryos were incubated at present-day ambient temperature, [~]0{degrees}C. Elevated temperature caused a high incidence of embryonic morphological abnormalities, including body axis kinking/curvature and reduced body size. Experimental embryos also developed more rapidly, such that they hatched 68 days earlier than controls (87 vs. 155 days post-fertilization). Accelerated development disrupted the evolved timing of seasonal hatching, shifting larval emergence into the polar winter when food availability is scarce. Transcriptomic analyses revealed molecular signatures of hypoxia and disrupted protein-folding in near-hatching embryos, indicative of severe cellular stress. Predictive modeling suggested that temperature-induced developmental disruptions would narrow seasonal reproductive windows, thereby threatening population viability under future climate scenarios. Together, our findings underscore the vulnerability of Antarctic fish embryos to higher water temperature and highlight the urgent need to understand the consequences of disruption of this important trophic component on ecosystem stability in the SO.

Significance StatementAntarctic fishes evolved cold-adapted phenotypes suited to the stable thermal conditions of the Southern Ocean, yet are threatened by rising temperatures. The impact of rising temperatures on early life stages in Antarctic fishes is not well understood; our findings show that projected warming may induce premature hatching, developmental abnormalities, and molecular stress responses in embryos, potentially reducing recruitment and leading to population instability and trophic-level ecosystem disruptions. These results underscore the urgency of assessing climate-driven vulnerabilities across life stages of Antarctic marine organisms to refine population projections and enhance conservation strategies amid ongoing environmental change.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Streeter, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Le Francois, N. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Desvignes, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grondin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Postlethwait, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Detrich, H. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daane, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.05.28.656708</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Projected warming disrupts embryonic development and hatch timing in Antarctic fish]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.01.657083v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
BifurcatoR: A Framework for Revealing Clinically Actionable Signal in Variance Masquerading as Noise 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.01.657083v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundDisease heterogeneity is a persistent challenge in medicine, complicating both research and treatment. Standard analytical pipelines often assume patient populations are homogeneous, overlooking variance patterns that may signal biologically distinct subgroups. Variance heterogeneity (VH)--including skewness, outliers, and multimodal distributions--offers a powerful but underused lens for detecting latent etiological structures relevant to prognosis and therapeutic response.

MethodsA major barrier to VH analysis is the fragmented landscape of available methods, many of which rely on normality assumptions that biological data frequently violate. In addition, existing tools often require programming expertise, and clear guidance on study design considerations--such as sample size and method selection--is lacking. To address these issues, we developed BifurcatoR, an open-source software platform that simplifies the detection, modeling, and interpretation of VH. BifurcatoR integrates simulation-based method evaluation, study design recommendations, and a user-friendly web interface to support VH analysis across a range of data distributions. We benchmarked VH methods through simulation and applied BifurcatoR to two clinical datasets: acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and obesity.

ResultsSimulation studies revealed that VH method performance is highly context-specific, varying with distribution shape, mean-variance coupling, and underlying subgroup structure. In AML, BifurcatoR identified two molecularly distinct subgroups with different treatment responses, including an EVI1-high group with significantly poorer prognosis (p < 0.005) among KMT2A-rearranged cases. In a separate study, VH analysis uncovered immunophenotypic subgroups in obesity based on gene-level discordance across monozygotic twin pairs, highlighting latent variation in adipose immune cell composition.

ConclusionsVH is not "noise", biological variation without clinical relevance. Instead, VH is a structured signal that can reveal latent and clinically meaningful subtypes. BifurcatoR offers a practical, accessible framework for incorporating VH into biomedical research, with implications for biomarker discovery, patient stratification, and precision medicine.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Madaj, Z. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khoo, C. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tokarski, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fagnocchi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>PERMUTE,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Riordan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pospisilik, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nadeau, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lary, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Triche, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.01.657083</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[BifurcatoR: A Framework for Revealing Clinically Actionable Signal in Variance Masquerading as Noise]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.03.657663v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Characterization of Axolotl Digit Regeneration: Conserved Mechanisms, Divergent Patterning, and a Critical Role for Hedgehog Signaling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.03.657663v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Axolotl digits offer an experimentally versatile model for studying complex tissue regeneration. Here, we provide a comprehensive morphological and molecular characterization of digit regeneration, revealing both conserved features and notable divergences from classical limb regeneration. Digit blastemas progress through similar morphological stages, are nerve-dependent, contain key regenerative cell populations, and express many canonical morphogens and mitogens. However, they exhibit minimal expression of the A-P patterning genes Shh, Fgf8, and Grem1; suggesting distal outgrowth and patterning occur independently of these signals. Joint regenerative fidelity varies significantly across digits and cannot be explained by differences in nerve supply, cell proliferation, or differential expression of any patterning genes assessed in this study. Furthermore, functional experiments reveal Hedgehog signaling is essential for interphalangeal joint regeneration, but activation alone is insufficient to improve fidelity in less robust digits. This system combines experimental accessibility with intrinsic variation in regenerative outcomes, making it an ideal platform to identify critical determinants of successful tissue regeneration and refine models of appendage patterning.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Griffiths, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duerr, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Owen, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.03.657663</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Characterization of Axolotl Digit Regeneration: Conserved Mechanisms, Divergent Patterning, and a Critical Role for Hedgehog Signaling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.09.658584v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Investigating the repeatability and behavioral relationships of acuity, contrast sensitivity, form, and motion perception measurements using a novel tablet-based vision test tool 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.09.658584v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Visual function tests are important in basic and clinical vision research but are typically limited to very few aspects of human vision, coarse diagnostic resolution, and require an administrator. Recently, the generalizable, response-adaptive, self-administered Angular Indication Measurement (AIM) and Foraging Interactive D-prime (FInD) methods were developed to assess vision across different visual functions. The AIM and FInD paradigms show a range of visual stimuli per display (4x4 stimuli) spanning {+/-}2{sigma} around an adaptively estimated perceptual threshold across multiple displays. Here, we investigated the repeatability and behavioral relationships of the AIM and FInD paradigms for near visual acuity, contrast sensitivity function (CSF), form, and motion coherence threshold measurements using a novel tablet-based vision test tool. 31 healthy participants were recruited and completed two repetitions of each experiment in random order. Bland-Altman analyses were performed to calculate the Coefficient of Repeatability (precision) and Mean Bias (accuracy). Linear regressions and hierarchical cluster analysis were used to investigate the relationship between outcome parameters. Results show that AIM Form coherence and FInD Form horizontal coherence showed significant retest bias; all other tests were bias-free. Cluster analysis revealed overall clustering of CSF, form and motion outcomes. We further show significant correlations within CSF and between motion coherence outcomes but few significant correlations between form coherence outcomes. AIM and FInD near vision tests are generalizable across multiple visual functions and are precise and reliable. Most functions tested were bias-free. CSF, form, and motion outcomes clustered together, and CSF and motion outcomes correlated with one another. The combination of a generalizable, response-adaptive, and self-administered approach may be a suitable set of tests for basic science and clinical use cases.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Green, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skerswetat, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schmidtmann, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.09.658584</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Investigating the repeatability and behavioral relationships of acuity, contrast sensitivity, form, and motion perception measurements using a novel tablet-based vision test tool]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.10.658903v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
TRPV4 Inhibition Reduces Cartilage Growth During Axolotl Limb Regeneration 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.10.658903v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundAxolotls can regenerate entire limbs, recapitulating mammalian developmental processes. During development, mechanosensitive ion channels such as TRPV4, PIEZO1, and PIEZO2 regulate tissue morphogenesis by transducing mechanical signals. Their roles in regeneration, however, have yet to be thoroughly explored. To investigate this, we assessed the expression of these channels during limb regeneration using single-cell RNA sequencing dataset, hybridization chain reaction fluorescence in-situ hybridization, and immunofluorescence. Additionally, functional relevance was tested by pharmacological inhibition of TRPV4 and PIEZO1/2 mechanosensitive ion channels during limb regeneration.

ResultsWhile PIEZO1 expression was undetected, we observed TRPV4 and PIEZO2 expression in uninjured cartilage and at both the mid-bud and palette blastemal stages of limb regeneration. TRPV4 and PIEZO2 were highly expressed in chondrocytes, with PIEZO2 enriched in fibroblasts. Inhibition with GSK205, a TRPV4 antagonist, significantly reduced calcium influx and humeral length without inhibiting cartilage differentiation. Treatment with gadolinium chloride, a broad spectrum mechanosensitive ion channel inhibitor, had no significant morphological impact.

ConclusionsTRPV4 and PIEZO2 are dynamically regulated during axolotl limb regeneration. Selective TRPV4 inhibition altered final limb morphology, but chondrogenesis was unaffected. This suggests a role for these genes in shaping tissue architecture during limb regeneration. These findings underscore the importance of ion channel-mediated mechanotransduction in regenerative patterning.

Key findingsO_LITRPV4 and PIEZO2 show distinct, stage- and cell type-specific expression patterns during axolotl limb regeneration
C_LIO_LISelective pharmacological inhibition of TRPV4 significantly reduces calcium signaling in chondrocytes and leads to shorter limb and humeral lengths in vivo
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kondiboyina, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ritterbuck, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Owen, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duerr, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shefelbine, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.10.658903</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[TRPV4 Inhibition Reduces Cartilage Growth During Axolotl Limb Regeneration]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.17.659820v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Population-specific brain charts reveal Chinese-Western differences in neurodevelopmental trajectories 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.17.659820v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Human brain charts provide unprecedented opportunities for decoding neurodevelopmental milestones and establishing clinical benchmarks for precision brain medicine 1-7. However, current lifespan brain charts are primarily derived from European and North American cohorts, with Asian populations severely underrepresented. Here, we present the first population-specific brain charts for China, developed through the Chinese Lifespan Brain Mapping Consortium (Phase I) using neuroimaging data from 43,037 participants (aged 0-100 years) across 384 sites nationwide. We establish the lifespan normative trajectories for 296 structural brain phenotypes, encompassing global, subcortical, and cortical measures. Cross-population comparisons with Western brain charts (based on data from 56,339 participants aged 0-100 years) reveal distinct neurodevelopmental patterns in the Chinese population, including prolonged cortical and subcortical maturation, accelerated cerebellar growth, and earlier development of sensorimotor regions relative to paralimbic regions. Crucially, these Chinese-specific charts outperform Western-derived models in predicting healthy brain phenotypes and detecting pathological deviations in Chinese clinical cohorts. These findings highlight the urgent need for diverse, population-representative brain charts to advance equitable precision neuroscience and improve clinical validity across populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sun, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qin, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Men, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duan, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, X.-R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gong, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tian, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ye, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meng, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, J.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lui, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Feng, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cui, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yin, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xian, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Si, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.17.659820</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Population-specific brain charts reveal Chinese-Western differences in neurodevelopmental trajectories]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.19.660510v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Beyond Reorganization: Intrinsic cortical hierarchies constrain experience-dependent plasticity in sensory-deprived humans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.19.660510v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Innate cortical organisation and postnatal sensory experience interact dynamically to shape the functional architecture of the human brain. Using naturalistic stimulation, functional gradient analyses, and comparative approaches in congenitally blind, congenitally deaf, and typically developed individuals, we investigated how intrinsic hierarchical structures and sensory experiences influence cortical organisation. Our findings demonstrate that the principal functional gradients spanning from unimodal sensory to transmodal association cortices are consistently preserved across all groups, suggesting a robust genetically determined cortical scaffold. Nonetheless, congenital sensory deprivation selectively reshapes the geometry of modality-specific gradients, characterised by reduced functional differentiation within sensory-deprived cortical regions. These geometric contractions promote experience-driven plastic reorganization, enabling deprived sensory areas to establish enhanced functional connectivity with transmodal and non-deprived sensory cortices. Critically, this reorganisation aligns systematically with pre-existing cortical gradients, highlighting intrinsic hierarchical constraints that guide experience-dependent plasticity. Moreover, sensory-deprived regions exhibiting heightened connectivity actively engage in processing structured perceptual information from intact modalities, reflecting specific feature-driven cross-modal adaptations. Collectively, these results underscore a fundamental duality in cortical organisation: innate hierarchical principles impose constraints on cortical architecture, while sensory experience drives adaptive refinement, demonstrating the brains intrinsic capacity for flexible functional reconfiguration in response to sensory deprivation.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Orsenigo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Setti, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pagani, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tamietto, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luppi, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ricciardi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.19.660510</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Beyond Reorganization: Intrinsic cortical hierarchies constrain experience-dependent plasticity in sensory-deprived humans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.20.660792v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Topological Architecture of Brain Identity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.20.660792v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Accurately identifying individuals from brain activity--functional fingerprinting--is a powerful tool for understanding individual variability and detecting brain disorders. Most current approaches rely on functional connectivity (FC), which measures pairwise correlations between brain regions. However, FC is limited in capturing the higher-order, multiscale structure of brain organization. Here, we propose a novel fingerprinting method based on homological scaffolds, a topological repre-sentation derived from persistent homology of resting-state fMRI data. Using data from the Human Connectome Project (n = 100), we show that scaffold-based fingerprints achieve near-perfect identification accuracy ([~] 100%), outperforming FC-based methods (90%), and remain robust across preprocessing pipelines, atlas choices, and even with drastically shortened scan durations. Unlike FC, in which fingerprinting features localize within networks, scaffolds derive their discriminative power from inter-network connections, revealing the existence of individual mesoscale organizational signatures. Finally, we show that scaffolds bridge redundancy and synergy by balancing redundant information along high-FC border edges with synergistic interactions across the topological voids they enclose. These findings establish topological scaffolds as a powerful tool for capturing individual variability, revealing that unique signatures of brain organization are encoded in the interplay between mesoscale network integration and information dynamics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Poetto, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merritt, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santoro, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rabuffo, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Battaglia, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaccarino, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saggar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brovelli, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.20.660792</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Topological Architecture of Brain Identity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.22.660768v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Climbing fibers selectively recruit disinhibitory interneurons to enhance dendritic calcium signaling in cerebellar Purkinje cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.22.660768v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Climbing fiber (CF) inputs to Purkinje cells (PCs) instruct plasticity and learning in the cerebellum1-3. Paradoxically, CFs also excite molecular layer interneurons (MLIs)4,5, a cell-type that inhibits PCs and can restrict plasticity and learning6,7. However, two types of MLIs with opposing influences have recently been identified: MLI1s inhibit PCs, reduce dendritic calcium signals, and suppress plasticity of granule cell to PC synapses2,6-9, whereas MLI2s inhibit MLI1s and disinhibit PCs8. To determine how CFs can activate MLIs without also suppressing the PC calcium signals necessary for plasticity and learning, we investigated the specificity of CF inputs onto MLIs. Serial EM reconstructions indicate that CFs contact both MLI subtypes without making conventional synapses, but more CFs contact each MLI2 via more sites with larger contact areas. Slice experiments indicate that CFs preferentially excite MLI2s via glutamate spillover4,5. In agreement with these anatomical and slice experiments, in vivo Neuropixels recordings show that spontaneous CF activity excites MLI2s, inhibits MLI1s, and disinhibits PCs. In contrast, learning-related sensory stimulation produced more complex responses, driving convergent CF and granule cell inputs that could either activate or suppress MLI1s. This balance was robustly shifted toward MLI1 suppression when CFs were synchronously active, in turn elevating the PC dendritic calcium signals necessary for LTD. These data provide mechanistic insight into why CF synchrony can be highly effective at inducing cerebellar learning2,3 by revealing a critical disinhibitory circuit that allows CFs to act through MLIs to enhance PC dendritic calcium signals necessary for plasticity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Santos-Valencia, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lackey, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Norton, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asem, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaynor, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>ediger, s.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hemelt, m. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, W.-C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brunel, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hull, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>regehr, w.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.22.660768</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Climbing fibers selectively recruit disinhibitory interneurons to enhance dendritic calcium signaling in cerebellar Purkinje cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.23.661158v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Theory of Temporal Pattern Learning in Echo State Networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.23.661158v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Echo state networks are well-known for their ability to learn temporal patterns through simple feedback to a large recurrent network with random connections. However, the learning process itself remains poorly understood. We develop a quantitative theory that explains learning in a regime where the network dynamics is stable and the feedback is weak. We show that the dynamics is governed by a finite number of master modes whose nonlinear interactions can be described by a normal form. This formulation provides a simple picture of learning as a Fourier decomposition of the target pattern with amplitudes determined by nonlinear interactions that, remarkably, become independent of the network randomness in the limit of large network size. We further show that the description extends to moderate feedback and recurrent networks with multiple unstable modes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hakim, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karma, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.23.661158</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Theory of Temporal Pattern Learning in Echo State Networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.24.661306v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Beyond Pairwise Interactions: Charting Higher-Order Models of Brain Function 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.24.661306v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Traditional models of brain connectivity have primarily focused on pairwise interactions, over-looking the rich dynamics that emerge from simultaneous interactions among multiple brain regions. Although a plethora of higher-order interaction (HOI) metrics have been proposed, a systematic evaluation of their comparative properties and utility is missing. Here, we present the first large-scale analysis of information-theoretic and topological HOI metrics, applied to both resting-state and task fMRI data from 100 unrelated subjects of the Human Connectome Project. We identify a clear taxonomy of HOI metrics -- redundant, synergistic, and topological--, with the latter acting as bridges along the redundancy-synergy continuum. Despite methodological differences, all HOI metrics align with the brains overarching unimodal-to-transmodal functional hierarchy. However, certain metrics show specific associations with the neurotransmitter receptor architecture. HOI metrics outperform traditional pairwise models in brain fingerprinting and perform comparably in task decoding, underscoring their value for characterizing individual functional profiles. Finally, multivariate analysis reveals that -- among all HOI metrics -- topological descriptors are key to linking brain function with behavioral variability, positioning them as valuable tools for linking neural architecture and cognitive function. Overall, our findings establish HOIs as a powerful framework for capturing the brains multidimensional dynamics, providing a conceptual map to guide their application across cognitive and clinical neuroscience.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Santoro, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neri, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poetto, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Orsenigo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diano, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gatica, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Petri, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.24.661306</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Beyond Pairwise Interactions: Charting Higher-Order Models of Brain Function]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.25.661347v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Testing Sensorimotor Timing in a Living Laboratory: Behavioral Signatures of a Neural Oscillator 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.25.661347v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Rhythmic ability has been studied for more than a century in laboratory settings testing timed finger taps. While robust results emerged, it remains unclear whether these findings reflect behavioral limitations in realistic scenarios. This study tested the synchronization-continuation task in a museum with 455 visitors of a wide variety of ages (5-74yrs), musical experiences (0-40yrs) and educational and cultural backgrounds. Adopting a dynamic systems perspective, three metronome pacing periods were anchored around each individuals preferred tempo, and 20% faster and 20% slower. Key laboratory findings were replicated and extended: timing error and variability decreased during childhood and increased in older adults and were lower, even with moderate musical experience. Consistent with an oscillator perspective, timing at non-preferred tempi drifted toward their preferred rate. Overall, these findings demonstrate that timing limitations may reflect attractor properties of a neural oscillator and its signature is still present even in noisy, naturalistic settings.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Serre, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrigian, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Park, S.-W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sternad, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-06-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.06.25.661347</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Testing Sensorimotor Timing in a Living Laboratory: Behavioral Signatures of a Neural Oscillator]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-06-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.01.662592v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Haplotype-Resolved DNA Methylation at the APOE Locus identifies Allele-Specific Epigenetic Signatures Relevant to Alzheimer's Disease Risk 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.01.662592v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The APOE gene encodes a key lipid transport protein and plays a central role in Alzheimers disease (AD) pathogenesis. Three common APOE alleles, {varepsilon}2 (rs7412(C>T), {varepsilon}3 (reference), and {varepsilon}4 (rs429358(T>C)), arise from two coding variants in exon 4 and confer distinct AD risk profiles, with {varepsilon}4 increasing risk and {varepsilon}2 providing protection. The {varepsilon}3-linked APOE variant rs769455[T] has also been associated with elevated AD risk in individuals of African ancestry carrying both rs769455[T] and {varepsilon}4 alleles. These single nucleotide variants (SNVs) reside in a cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) island, which is a region with a higher frequency of CpG sites compared to the rest of the genome. CpG sites are subject to 5-methylcytosine (5mC) methylation by DNA methyltransferases which add a methyl group to the fifth carbon on the cytosine residue of a CpG site. The presence of SNVs can disrupt this process, making these regions prime targets for differential methylation; however, allele-specific methylation patterns in APOE remain poorly resolved due to technical limitations of conventional bisulfite and methylation array based methods, including degraded DNA quality, sparse CpG coverage, and lack of haplotype phasing. Here, we leverage high-accuracy long-read sequencing data to generate haplotype-resolved methylation profiles of the APOE locus in 332 postmortem brain samples from two ancestrally different cohorts. This includes 201 individuals of European ancestry from the North American Brain Expression Consortium (NABEC), comprising 402 haplotypes (48 {varepsilon}2 and 58 {varepsilon}4 alleles), and 131 individuals of African and African admixed ancestry from the Human Brain Core Collection (HBCC), comprising 262 haplotypes (25 {varepsilon}2, 64 {varepsilon}4, and 7 rs769455 alleles). A linear regression analysis identified 18 novel differentially methylated CpG sites (DMCs) associated with APOE {varepsilon}2, {varepsilon}4, and rs769455 within a gene cluster spanning TOMM40, APOE, APOC1, and APOC4-APOC2. This represents the most comprehensive haplotype-resolved methylation study of APOE in human brain tissue to date. Our results uncover distinct allele-specific methylation signatures and demonstrate the power of long-read sequencing for resolving epigenetic variation relevant to AD risk.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Genner, R. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meredith, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moller, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weller, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daida, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ayuketah, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jerez, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akeson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malik, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kouam, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paquette, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marenco, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auluck, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mandal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paten, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cookson, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singleton, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nalls, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blauwendraat, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Billingsley, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.01.662592</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Haplotype-Resolved DNA Methylation at the APOE Locus identifies Allele-Specific Epigenetic Signatures Relevant to Alzheimer's Disease Risk]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.10.664179v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Hybrid yak-cattle in situ conservation via interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer at ultra-high-altitude region 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.10.664179v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pien-niu, the hybrid offspring of yak (Bos grunniens) and domestic cattle (Bos taurus), possess exceptional adaptability to ultra-high-altitude environments of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. In situ conservation is of special significance for ultra-high-altitude region because the offsprings need to possess the ability to adapt to the unique environment. The present study was to clone Pien-niu in Xizang via interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer (iSCNT) to practice in situ conservation of large animal at ultra-high-altitude region. Ear fibroblast cells were isolated from Pien-niu at Qushui Experimental Station (3650m above sea level), an animal live conservation farm at Xizang, and used as iSCNT donor cells. The iSCNT blastocysts were transferred into the oviduct of surrogate Pien-niu which are maintained at Qushui Experimental Station. A live cloned Pien-niu calf was born on May 12, 2025 and keeps healthy till now. Results of short tandem repeat analysis revealed that the microsatellite loci of cloned calf were completely matched with that of donor fibroblast cells. The successful cloning of Pien-niu can provide a paradigm for in situ germplasm conservation via iSCNT at ultra-high-altitude region.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nima, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.10.664179</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hybrid yak-cattle in situ conservation via interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer at ultra-high-altitude region]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.11.664442v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Twice as nice: Boosts in adolescent reinforcement learning from Pavlovian bias and age-related prioritization of reward-motivated incidental memory. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.11.664442v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adolescence is a period marked by profound changes in both capacities for learning and the motivational drives that guide behavior. Motivated learning, including the ability to associate cues with actions that lead to positive or negative outcomes, is a fundamental component of adaptive behavior and is essential for survival. Equally important is the encoding of events during learning, which may be influenced by the valence of outcomes. Given the substantial neurocognitive changes in motivated learning and memory that occur from childhood to adulthood, adolescence provides a unique window to investigate mechanisms of these adaptive behaviors. Yet, we know surprisingly little about the development of these behaviors, with sparse extant research fraught with inconsistent findings. In this study, we examined motivated learning and incidental memory using a validated affective learning task in a sample of 174 participants aged 8 to 25 years. The task orthogonalized action and outcome valence and included incidental encoding of trial-unique images presented during feedback, followed by a delayed memory test. We show that adolescents outperform both children and adults in learning by leveraging Pavlovian response biases. In contrast, children exhibit enhanced memory for stimuli associated with positive outcomes compared to adolescents and adults. These findings point to distinct developmental advantages: enhanced learning performance in adolescence and enhanced memory for rewarding events in childhood, each potentially adaptive at their respective developmental stages. Together, these findings suggest opportunities to leverage learning and memory in youth for practical applications, such as education and policy setting.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hegefeld, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davidow, J. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.11.664442</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Twice as nice: Boosts in adolescent reinforcement learning from Pavlovian bias and age-related prioritization of reward-motivated incidental memory.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.18.665577v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Microbial consortia in salt marsh sediments are sequentially buried over millennia and genomic complementarity analysis indicates an important role in complex carbon decomposition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.18.665577v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Salt marsh sediments contain high levels of microbial diversity and functions that reflect the heterogeneity of available nutrients, dynamic hydrology, and layers of organic matter developed over millennia. However, the microbially mediated processes involved in the cycling of complex carbon are still largely undescribed. We used genome reconstruction, co-occurrence networks, and genome scale metabolic modeling to identify the functional capacity for organic matter decomposition and transformation among groups of co-occurring microbes from 5-240 cm of sediment in a Spartina patens salt marsh, representing over 3000 years of sediment accumulation. We identified four consortia with similar taxonomic and functional profiles, but distinctly different distributions within the sedimentary layers. Microbial members common to each of these consortia included novel members of Bathyarchaeia BA1, Desulfatiglandales, Chloroflexota, Caldatribacteriota (JS1), Planctomycetota, and WOR3. The collective metabolic potential of these core consortia contained the capacity to decompose complex carbon and aromatics through syntrophic interactions. The composition and functional potential of these co-occurring members are most similar to communities inhabiting sediment hundreds of meters beneath the surface of deep-sea sediments. Our results suggest that the assembly of communities within the salt marsh sediment are similarly governed by burial and nutrient limitation. The burial processes and putative syntrophy identified here provide a mechanistic understanding of how microbial life can persist under energy limited conditions and contribute to the transformation of carbon within salt marsh sediment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vineis, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bulseco, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cardon, Z. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowen, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.18.665577</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Microbial consortia in salt marsh sediments are sequentially buried over millennia and genomic complementarity analysis indicates an important role in complex carbon decomposition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.23.666367v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Synaptic sign switching mediates online dopamine updates 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.23.666367v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In the mammalian brain, excitatory and inhibitory synapses are generally distinct and have fixed synaptic signs. Therefore, unlike in artificial neural networks, learning in biological networks is thought to be manifested by plasticity mechanisms that modify synaptic weights but not signs. Here, we demonstrate experience-dependent sign switching at synapses between glutamate and GABA co-releasing neurons of the entopedunculus (EP) and their targets in the lateral habenula (LHb). Pairing of reward or punishment with activation of EP co-releasing neurons makes EP-LHb synapses relatively more inhibitory or excitatory, respectively. Synaptic sign switching modulates downstream dopaminergic signaling, correlates with recent dopamine updates, and contributes to reinforcement learning. These data unveil a plasticity mechanism that alters both synaptic signs and weights to rapidly update dopamine release and drive learning.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Knipe, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jerng, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capelli, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bilsel, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sabatini, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.23.666367</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Synaptic sign switching mediates online dopamine updates]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.29.667487v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Recurrent connectivity supports carbon dioxide sensitivity in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.29.667487v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The mosquito Aedes aegyptis human host-seeking behavior depends on the integration of multiple sensory cues. One of these cues, carbon dioxide (CO2), gates odorant and heat pathways and activates host-seeking behavior. The neuronal circuits underlying processing of CO2 information remain unclear. We used automated serial-section transmission electron microscopy (EM) to image and reconstruct the circuitry of the glomeruli that are innervated by the Ae. aegypti maxillary palp, including the glomerulus that responds to CO2. Notably, CO2-sensitive olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) make high levels of recurrent synaptic connections with one another, while making a low density of feedforward synapses. At some of these contacts between CO2 OSNs, we observe ribbon- like presynaptic structures, which may further enhance recurrent signaling. We compared both feedforward and recurrent connectivity with all olfactory glomeruli in Drosophila melanogaster, and we found more recurrent connections between the Ae. aegypti CO2-responsive OSNs than in any D. melanogaster glomeruli. We developed a computational circuit model that demonstrates recurrent synapses are necessary for robust CO2 detection under normal physiological conditions. Together, elevated levels of recurrent connectivity and ribbon-like structures may amplify sensory information detected by CO2-sensitive OSNs to support mosquito activation and sensitization by CO2, even in the presence of high levels of other odorants in the environment. We propose that this circuit organization supports the salience of CO2 as a mosquito host cue.

One Sentence SummaryConnectomic analysis of carbon dioxide circuitry in the disease-vector mosquito Aedes aegypti.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bao, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alford, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khandelwa, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walsh, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lantz, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poncio, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capdevila, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Azatian, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DePasquale, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hildebrand, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Younger, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, W.-C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-07-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.07.29.667487</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Recurrent connectivity supports carbon dioxide sensitivity in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-07-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.06.668464v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Platelets drive immune suppression and glioblastoma growth in a sex-dependent manner via PAR4 signaling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.06.668464v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Sex differences in cancer outcome, including that of glioblastoma (GBM), are shaped by biological, hormonal, and immunological factors and impact disease progression, treatment responses, survival, and tumor microenvironment (TME) interactions. Platelets regulate the immune responses and tumor progression in many cancers, but it is not clear how they contribute to these sex-based differences by affecting the dynamics of the TME. Here, we show that GBM patients exhibit heightened platelet reactivity driven by PAR4 signaling. In murine GBM models, both pharmacological inhibition of PAR4 using BMS986120 and genetic deletion of PAR4 significantly prolong survival in females but not males. This survival advantage is estrogen dependent: it is preserved in chromosomal male-hormonal female mice within the four-core genotype model and is rescued in ovariectomized mice treated with estrogen. The survival benefit is TME specific and is mediated by platelet-driven enhancement of CD8 T cell infiltration into the tumor. Inhibition of platelet PAR4 signaling increases calcium signaling through an estrogen-dependent interaction between PAR4 and estrogen receptor {beta} (ER{beta})--a receptor interaction not previously described. PAR4-activated platelets within the TME suppress CD8 T cell function, and depletion of CD8 T cells abolishes both the tumor-induced platelet reactivity and the survival benefit conferred by PAR4 inhibition. These findings establish platelet-mediated PAR4 signaling as a critical driver of tumor progression and identify sex-specific immune responses as key to therapeutic efficacy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sloan, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bukenya, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aggarwal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosoff, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alban, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Juric, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Silver, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tacj, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Navadgi, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tannish, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coker, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scalise, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rajasekar, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vincenti, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mulkearns-Hubert, E. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horbinski, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sloan, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hubert, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rubin, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stavrou, E. X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lohoff, F. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nieman, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sangwan, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khorana, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhawan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cameron, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lathia, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.06.668464</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Platelets drive immune suppression and glioblastoma growth in a sex-dependent manner via PAR4 signaling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.06.668589v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bottlebrush Polymer Conjugates for Enhanced Antisense Oligonucleotide Therapy in Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.06.668589v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Oligonucleotides are a promising genetic medicine for myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), the most common adult-onset muscular dystrophy. However, poor muscle distribution of nucleic acid drugs after systemic administration has hindered drug development, and no curative treatment exists. Additionally, DM1 pathology requires drug localization to the nucleus, where pathogenic mutant RNA is trapped, posing challenges after endocytosis and endosomal escape. Here, we show that a locked nucleic acid oligonucleotide targeting mutant CUGexp RNA tracts, conjugated to a bottlebrush polymer, exhibited improved muscle distribution and potent correction of DM1-associated splicing at low nanomolar doses in a DM1 mouse model. Significant improvements in myotonia, body weight, and grip strength were observed. The conjugates were well tolerated after 12 weeks of weekly intravenous dosing. These results suggest that bottlebrush polymer bioconjugates may overcome key limitations of traditional antisense drugs for muscular dystrophies, with the potential as potent, durable, and cost-efficient DM1 therapies.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=78 SRC="FIGDIR/small/668589v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (21K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@e3961corg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@194225dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@5c470dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@3cc46a_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oetheimer, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heo, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schneider, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nian, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherman, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.06.668589</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bottlebrush Polymer Conjugates for Enhanced Antisense Oligonucleotide Therapy in Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.05.668560v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
GHIST 2024: The 1st Genomic History Inference Strategies Tournament 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.05.668560v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Evaluating population genetic inference methods is challenging due to the complexity of evolutionary histories, potential model misspecification, and unconscious biases in self-assessment. The Genomic History Inference Strategies Tournament (GHIST) is a community-driven competition designed to evaluate methods for inferring evolutionary history from population genomic data. The inaugural GHIST competition ran from July to November 2024 and featured four demographic history inference challenges of varying complexity: a bottleneck model, a split with isolation model, a secondary contact model with demographic complexity, and an archaic admixture model. Data were provided as error-free VCF files, and participants submitted numerical parameter estimates that were scored by relative root mean squared error. Approximately 60 participants competed, using diverse approaches. Results revealed the current dominance of methods based on site frequency spectra, while highlighting the advantages of flexible model-building approaches for complex demographic histories. We discuss insights regarding the competition and outline the next iteration, which is ongoing with expanded challenge diversity. By providing standardized benchmarks and highlighting areas for improvement, GHIST represents a substantial step toward more reliable inference of evolutionary history from genomic data.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Struck, T. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaughn, A. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daigle, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ray, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noskova, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sequeira, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antonets, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alekseevskaya, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grigoreva, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raines, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McMaster, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kovacs, T. G. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ragsdale, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moreno-Estrada, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siepel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gutenkunst, R. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.05.668560</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[GHIST 2024: The 1st Genomic History Inference Strategies Tournament]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.09.669508v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Transient ion-mediated interactions regulate subunit rotation in a eukaryotic ribosome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.09.669508v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While it is known that ions are required for folding of RNA, little is known about how transient/probabilistic ionic interactions facilitate biologically-relevant conformational rearrangements. To address this, we developed a theoretical model that employs all-atom resolution, with a simplified representation of biomolecular energetics, explicit electrostatics and ions (K+, Cl-, Mg2+). For well-studied RNA systems (58-mer and Ade riboswitch), the model accurately describes the concentration-dependent ionic environment, including (bidentate) chelated and hydrated (diffuse/outer-shell) ions. With this foundation, we applied the model to simulate the yeast ribosome and quantified the ion-dependent energy landscape of intersubunit rotation. These calculations show how the energetics of rotation responds to millimolar changes in [MgCl2], which shift the distribution between rotation states and alter the kinetics by more than an order of magnitude. We find that this response to the ionic concentration correlates with formation and breakage of ion-mediated interactions (inner-shell and outer-shell) between the ribosomal subunits. This analysis provides a physical basis for understanding how transient ion-mediated interactions can regulate a large-scale biological process.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wanes, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohanty, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.09.669508</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Transient ion-mediated interactions regulate subunit rotation in a eukaryotic ribosome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.15.670562v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Comprehensive evaluation of antibody responses to mosquitoes and mosquito-borne arboviruses using highly multiplexed serology 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.15.670562v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and their future impact may increase due to climate change. Antigens driving host immune responses to pathogens and vectors can serve as vaccine candidates and biomarkers of previous exposure, but the immunogenicity of the relevant proteomes remains undercharacterized. To comprehensively profile antibody responses to VBDs and to the vectors themselves, we developed a highly multiplexed phage display library (VectorScan) containing over 250,000 peptides derived from diverse arthropod vectors and prevalent vector-borne pathogens. We used phage immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhIP-Seq) to screen VectorScan against blood samples from non-human primates and humans with experimental and natural exposures to arboviruses and mosquitoes (Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti). We analyzed quantitative measurements of peptide seroreactivity to identify epitopes driving viral serotype-level exposure signatures, as well as novel mosquito sialome antigens. Mosquito-directed antibody responses were associated with natural viral exposure, but highly heterogeneous at an individual level. However, recurrent responses to insect-derived cuticular proteins, mucin-like proteins, and fibrinogen-like proteins will inform development of future serosurveillance tools for vector exposure and vector-based vaccines.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Anahtar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Striplet, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Philbin, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lacsina, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Valenzuela, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johansson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oliveira, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Willen, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamhawi, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cote-Lheureux, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fortune, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neafsey, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.15.670562</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Comprehensive evaluation of antibody responses to mosquitoes and mosquito-borne arboviruses using highly multiplexed serology]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.15.670438v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Single-Cell Characterization of Anterior Segment Development: Cell Types, Pathways, and Signals Driving Formation of the Trabecular Meshwork and Schlemm's Canal 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.15.670438v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Morphogenesis of the anterior segment (AS) is crucial for healthy ocular physiology and vision but is only partially understood. The Schlemms canal (SC) and trabecular meshwork (TM) are essential drainage tissues within the AS, and their proper development and function are critical for maintaining normal intraocular pressure; abnormalities in either tissue can result in elevated pressure and glaucoma. Here, we use single-cell transcriptomic profiling to provide high-resolution molecular detail of AS development with a particular focus on SC and TM. We report transcriptomes for [~]130,000 single cells at key developmental stages from postnatal day 2 (P2) to P60. We provide the first annotation of cell types across these developmental stages and crucial information about dynamic changes in pathways/gene expression. Further, we trace developmental trajectories for TM cell and SC endothelial cell (SEC) subtypes and determine genes and signaling networks driving their specific cell fates. We demonstrate dynamic changes in signaling interactions between SC and the TM cells during their synchronized development. Collectively, our data lay a deep molecular foundation for AS development that will direct understanding of normal ocular physiology, glaucoma, and other AS conditions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Balasubramanian, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tolman, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hannan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bupp-Chickering, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polanco, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhandari, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simon, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peregrin, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Montgomery, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kizhatil, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>John, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.15.670438</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Single-Cell Characterization of Anterior Segment Development: Cell Types, Pathways, and Signals Driving Formation of the Trabecular Meshwork and Schlemm's Canal]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.15.670514v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SEAHORSE: A Serendipity Engine Assaying Heterogeneous Omics-Related Sampling Experiments 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.15.670514v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Large-scale, open-access data sets such as the Genotype Tissue Expression Project (GTEx) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) include multi-omic data on large numbers of samples along with extensive clinical and phenotypic information. These datasets provide a unique opportunity to discover correlations among clinical and genomic data features that can lead to testable hypotheses and new discoveries. SEAHORSE (http://seahorse.networkmedicine.org/) is a web-based database and search tool for exploratory data analysis in which we have pre-computed statistical associations between available data elements. An easy-to-use user interface allows users to explore significant associations using tabulated summary statistics, data visualizations, and functional enrichment analyses (using RNA-seq data) for identified sets of genes. We describe the motivation and construction of SEAHORSE and demonstrate its utility by documenting several surprising association patterns observed across multiple tissues in GTEx and multiple different cancer types in TCGA.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Quackenbush, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kolluri, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Biju, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nhong, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeConti, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quackenbush, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saha, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.15.670514</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SEAHORSE: A Serendipity Engine Assaying Heterogeneous Omics-Related Sampling Experiments]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.26.672253v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Connectome-based predictive modelling predicts frailty levels in older adults 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.26.672253v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Frailty is characterized by a persistent and progressive decline in physiological reserves, leading to increased vulnerability to stressors and a heightened risk of adverse health outcomes, both physically and mentally. Despite frailtys prevalence in older adults, there is limited research on its neural substrates, especially using task-based brain functional connectivity. In this study, we used connectome-based predictive modelling (CPM) to find a linear relationship between task-based connectomes -- taken from tasks that involved similar handgrip manipulations -- and a separate measure of frailty: the maximum grip strength in older adults. We observed that the task-based connectomes were able to explain individual differences in grip strength, with the Subcortical and Cerebellum network, particularly the caudate nucleus, functional connectivity being the strongest predictor. These findings demonstrate that task-based functional connectomes can serve as personalized markers that can predict individual behavioral measures, including handgrip strength, and point to involvement of the caudate nucleus in frailty.

Key pointsO_LIWe used connectome-based predictive modeling on task-based fMRI to predict grip strength in older adults, a key marker of physical frailty.
C_LIO_LIThe model significantly explained inter-individual differences in contraction strength using functional connectivity patterns.
C_LIO_LISubcortical regions, especially the caudate nucleus, played a major role in prediction, highlighting their relevance in frailty assessment and potential interventions.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ghaffari, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abouzaki, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romero, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seitz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>langley, j.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bennett, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.26.672253</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Connectome-based predictive modelling predicts frailty levels in older adults]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.26.672269v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A multi-frequency whole-brain neural mass model with homeostatic feedback inhibition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.26.672269v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Whole-brain models are valuable tools for understanding brain dynamics in health and disease by enabling the testing of causal mechanisms and identification of therapeutic targets through dynamic simulations. Among these models, biophysically inspired neural mass models have been widely used to simulate electrophysiological recordings, such as MEG and EEG. However, traditional models face limitations, including susceptibility to hyperexcitation, which constrains their ability to capture the full richness of neural dynamics. Here, we developed and characterized a new version of the Jansen-Rit neural mass model aimed at overcoming these limitations. Our model incorporates inhibitory synaptic plasticity (ISP), which adjusts inhibitory feedback onto pyramidal neurons to clamp their firing rates around a target value. Further, the model combined two subpopulations of neural cortical columns oscillating in  and {gamma}, respectively, to generate a richer EEG power spectrum. We analyzed how different model parameters modulate oscillatory frequency and connectivity. We considered a models showcase, simultaneously fitting EEG and fMRI recordings during NREM sleep. Bifurcation analysis showed that ISP increases the parameters range in which the model exhibited sustained oscillations; the target firing rate acts as a bifurcation parameter, moving the system across the bifurcation point, producing different oscillatory regimes, from slower to faster. High frequency activity emerged from low global coupling, high firing rates, and a high proportion of {gamma} versus  subpopulations. Importantly, ISP was necessary in the multi-frequency model to successfully fit EEG functional connectivity across frequency bands. Finally, ISP-controlled reductions in excitability reproduced both the slow-wave activity and the reduced connectivity in NREM sleep. Altogether, our model is compatible with biological evidence of the effects of E/I balance on modulating brain rhythms and connectivity, as observed in sleep, neurodegeneration, and chemical neuromodulation. This biophysical model with ISP provides a springboard for realistic brain simulations in health and disease.

Author SummaryMacroscale brain activity can be captured using techniques like EEG and fMRI. However, the granular or more detailed activity of neurons and neural masses is inaccessible. A solution is the use of whole-brain models, although they are not free from limitations, they can simulate EEG and fMRI recordings from mathematical equations and empirical data. One first limitation in these models is hyperexcitation. When the coupling between brain areas increases, brain areas might become aberrantly hyperexcitable if no compensatory mechanisms are considered. To address this, we introduce a mechanism in the model that dynamically modifies feedback inhibition to compensate for this excitability increase when running simulations. A second limitation is that many models fail to reproduce the spectral richness of EEG signals. EEG recordings reflect interweaving slower and faster rhythms, and some traditional models of EEG fail in capturing the spectral range of electrophysiological recordings. Here, we addressed this by combining two subpopulations of cortical columns within single brain areas, each one oscillating within the  and {gamma} bands of EEG. Their combined activity generates EEG oscillations resembling the slower rhythms observed during sleep, and the faster ones triggered by increased attentional load. We ran different types of simulations and analyses to fully characterize our model. We observed that controlling system excitability is necessary to fully capture EEG connectivity and to simultaneously reproduce the EEG power spectrum and fMRI dynamics. Moreover, we showed that reduced/increased brain excitability is the cause of the emergence of the slowest/fastest EEG rhythms. The model can be used to characterize how connectivity and brain dynamics are altered in different types of conditions, such as chemical neuromodulation, drug delivery, altered states of consciousness, and neurodegenerative disorders. Our model is open access, well-documented, and introduced with tutorials, in the way to make it accessible to the whole neuroscience community.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Coronel-Oliveros, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lehue, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herzog, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mindlin, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gatica, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kowalczyk-Grebska, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Medel, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cruzat, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gonzalez-Gomez, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hernandez, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tagliazucchi, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prado, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Orio, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ibanez, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-08-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.26.672269</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A multi-frequency whole-brain neural mass model with homeostatic feedback inhibition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-08-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.29.660730v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Improving neuroimaging headgear placement robustness using facial-landmark guided augmented reality 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.29.660730v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceAccurate and consistent probe placement is crucial in functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalogram (EEG) experiments, especially in longitudinal and group-based studies. Both operator experience and subject head shape variability can affect placement accuracy.

AimWe aim to develop an easy-to-use software, NeuroNavigatAR (NNAR), utilizing augmented reality (AR) and machine-learning to estimate and display in real-time the subjects cranial and head landmarks to guide consistent headgear placement.

ApproachBy applying a facial recognition toolbox to the image frames extracted from a video camera, we can obtain and continuously track subject-specific three-dimensional (3-D) facial landmarks. Separately, we have precomputed a robust linear transformation between facial landmarks and key cranial landmarks, including nasion and preauricular points, using a large public head-model library consisting of over 1,000 subjects. These allow us to rapidly estmate subject-specific cranial landmarks and subsequently render atlas-derived head landmarks to the subjects camera stream.

ResultsAn open-source graphical user interface implementing this AR system has achieved a speed of 15 frameper-second using a laptop. A median 10-20 position error of 1.52 cm was found when using a general adult atlas, and is further reduced to 1.33 cm and 0.75 cm when using age-matched atlas models and subject-specific head surfaces, respectively. NNAR demonstrated consistent head-landmark prediction errors across repeated measurement sessions; there is also no statistically significant difference in accuracy across age groups.

ConclusionsNNAR is an easy-to-use AR headgear placement monitoring tool that is expected to significantly enhance consistency and reduce setup time for fNIRS and EEG probe donning across a wide range of studies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yen, F.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, Y.-A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.29.660730</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Improving neuroimaging headgear placement robustness using facial-landmark guided augmented reality]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.31.673380v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Systemic inflammation reduces astrocyte Ca2+ and neurovascular coupling in a mouse model of Alzheimers disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.31.673380v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chronic neuroinflammation in Alzheimers disease (AD) activates astrocytes--key regulators of both brain immunity and neurovascular coupling. The primed immune environment in AD brain also renders it highly susceptible to secondary systemic inflammatory challenges. Inflammatory activation drives phenotypic shifts in astrocytes that may compromise their ability to regulate cerebral blood flow. The capacity for inflammation-activated astrocytes to retain this regulatory function, however, remains unknown. To investigate astrocyte regulation of cerebral blood flow in AD brain and under systemic inflammation, we investigated astrocytic Ca2+ dynamics and functional hyperemia at rest and during brief and prolonged sensory stimulation in 12-month-old female APP/PS1dE9 mice. We further examined how a secondary systemic inflammatory challenge induced by low-dose, repeated injection of LPS modulates astrocytic signaling and neurovascular function. AD mice exhibited elevated spontaneous but diminished stimulation-evoked astrocytic Ca2+ activity, accompanied by impaired sustained functional hyperemia, particularly within the capillary network. LPS-induced systemic inflammation further suppressed both spontaneous and evoked astrocytic Ca2+ responses and attenuated functional hyperemia. Together, these findings reveal that inflammation disrupts astrocyte-dependent regulation of sustained neurovascular responses in the AD brain.

HIGHLIGHTSO_LIAstrocytes in AD mice exhibit increased spontaneous Ca2+ signaling but cannot sustain stimulus-evoked Ca2+ release.
C_LIO_LIReduced astrocyte Ca2+ release during 30s functional brain activation correlates with impaired neurovascular coupling in both penetrating arterioles and capillaries of AD mice
C_LIO_LIA secondary, 14-day systemic inflammatory challenge further suppressed functional hyperemia of 30 s stimulus-evoked astrocytic Ca2+ release in AD mice.
C_LIO_LIA secondary inflammatory insult lasting 14 days reduced amyloid deposition in the AD brain.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sakha, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anton, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cardenas-Rivera, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yaseen, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.08.31.673380</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Systemic inflammation reduces astrocyte Ca2+ and neurovascular coupling in a mouse model of Alzheimers disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673272v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Soil composition structures genetic variation across small spatial scales in a rare serpentine endemic plant 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673272v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Studies of population genetic structure are typically conducted at the scale of species distributions and encompass large distances and substantial environmental variation. However, population genetic structure could also be present in species with highly restricted global distributions, such as habitat specialists with threatened or vulnerable conservation status. For these organisms, low dispersal distances coupled with fine-scale environmental heterogeneity could influence population genetic composition, potentially creating spatial genetic structure and genotype by environment associations. Here we use the serpentine endemic plant Calochortus tiburonensis, with a global distribution of 160 ha, to evaluate whether fine-scale structure in soil composition and low seed dispersal distances result in the development of population genetic structure. We paired soil elemental analysis with a RAD-seq SNP dataset for 24 C. tiburonensis individuals. Although no population structure was detected between C. tiburonensis sampling locations, multiple analyses identified associations between soil composition and genetic distance between individuals. This included associations with nickel and magnesium, two elements that were expected a priori to impact plant fitness in serpentine landscapes. However, redundancy analyses and a generalized dissimilarity model both suggest that total soil variation better explains differences in genetic composition between individuals, implying that selection from the holistic soil environment has a role in matching plant genotypes to the microenvironment. Our results indicate that fine-scale environmental heterogeneity could influence genetic differences between individuals in plant populations, even in the absence of population genetic structure. Additionally, these associations between genetic composition and fine-scale environmental heterogeneity implicate extremely fine-scale environmental heterogeneity as an essential mechanism for preserving genetic variation, particularly within range-limited species.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Braasch, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harencar, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swope, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.01.673272</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Soil composition structures genetic variation across small spatial scales in a rare serpentine endemic plant]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.03.674008v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Automated Quantification of Stereotypical Motor Movements in Autism Using Persistent Homology 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.03.674008v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Stereotypical motor movements (SMM) are a core diagnostic feature of autism that remain difficult to quantify efficiently and validly across individuals and developmental stages. The current paper presents a novel pipeline that leverages Topological Data Analysis to quantify and characterize recurrent movement patterns. Specifically, we use persistent homology to construct low-dimensional, interpretable feature vectors that capture geometric properties associated with autistic SMM by extracting periodic structure from time series derived from pose estimation landmarks in video data and accelerometer signals from wearable sensors. We demonstrate that these features, combined with simple classifiers, enable accurate automated quantification of autistic SMM. Visualization of the learned feature space reveals that extracted features generalize across individuals and are not dominated by person-specific SMM. Our results highlight the potential of using mathematically principled features to support more scalable, interpretable, and person-agnostic characterization of autistic SMM in naturalistic settings.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>MBaye, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perea, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tralie, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goodwin, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.03.674008</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Automated Quantification of Stereotypical Motor Movements in Autism Using Persistent Homology]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.04.674300v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Gel-Amin for improving signal propagation and extracellular recordings of cardiomyocytes in a 3D Microphysiological System 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.04.674300v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Microphysiological systems (MPSs) hold great potential for fundamental discovery and accelerating the drug discovery pipeline through simplifying complex tissues to their first principles and enabling real-time, high-resolution monitoring. Hydrophilic biomaterials, such as hydrogels, are important for MPS innovations due to their ability to emulate the native extracellular matrix and tunable mechanical properties. Furthermore, hydrogels can be tailored to improve tissue maturity as well as the efficacy of instrumentation. However, many biopolymers are non-conductive, presenting complications for modeling excitable tissue environments like the heart. In this work, we show that an 8% (w/v) Gelatin Methacryloyl (GelMA) + 3.5% (v/v) Choline Acrylate hydrogel, nicknamed Gel-Amin, can amplify extracellular voltage recordings from a culture of cardiomyocytes (CMs) from commercial microelectrode arrays. Our laser cut and assemble method for manufacturing 3D MPSs allowed direct comparisons of CM signal propagation in Gel-Amin compared to control GelMA cultures in a single system. This innovative material supported in vitro CM cultures with improved synchronicity and greater signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), suggesting potential improvements over conventional biomaterial limitations. Here, we developed a cost-effective in vitro cardiac tissue model that allows real-time electrical activity monitoring.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pizzarella, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neuman, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burson, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.04.674300</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Gel-Amin for improving signal propagation and extracellular recordings of cardiomyocytes in a 3D Microphysiological System]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.06.674021v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Endogenous suspension and reset of consciousness: 7T fMRI brain mapping of the extended cessation meditative endpoint 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.06.674021v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Extended cessation (EC), an advanced meditative state in which consciousness is volitionally suspended and later reset with immense mental clarity, equanimity, and peace, offers an endogenous model for investigating the mechanisms of consciousness. Using ultra-high-resolution 7T fMRI with dense within-subject sampling (N=3), we quantified whole-brain activity, functional and effective connectivity, cortical gradients, and eigenmodes, and related them to chemoarchitecture and cognitive maps. EC is marked by increased activity in unimodal regions, down-regulation in transmodal regions, subcortex, and brainstem, an expansion of the principal gradient, and decrease in low-order global eigenmodes. Cognitive decoding linked EC to heightened perceptual clarity and attention, least with mental suffering, and co-varied with histaminergic H receptors topology. These findings challenge predictions of Global Neuronal Workspace and Integrated Information Theory, while supporting the Active Inference Framework. More broadly, EC demonstrates that consciousness can cease without global suppression, suggesting a potential "reset" mechanism that fosters equanimity and the potential for flourishing.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kadambi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abellaneda-Perez, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mackin, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beslic, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Potash, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sparby, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sacchet, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.06.674021</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Endogenous suspension and reset of consciousness: 7T fMRI brain mapping of the extended cessation meditative endpoint]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.12.675721v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein Phosphorylation-induced Functional Switch 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.12.675721v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (Np) is essential for viral RNA replication and genomic RNA packaging. Phosphorylation of Np within its central Ser-Arg-rich (SRR) linker is proposed to modulate these functions. To gain mechanistic insights into these distinct roles, we performed in vitro biophysical and biochemical studies using recombinantly expressed ancestral Np and phosphomimetic SRR variants. Limited-proteolysis showed minor cleavage differences between wild-type (WT) and phosphomimetic Np, but no major structure or stability changes in the N- and C-terminal domains were observed by circular dichroism spectroscopy and differential scanning fluorimetry, respectively. Mass photometry (MP) revealed that WT Np dimerized more readily than phosphomimetic variants. Crosslinking-MP showed WT Np formed discrete complexes on viral 5' UTR stem-loop (SL) 5 RNA, whereas phosphomimetic Np assembled preferentially on SL1-4. WT Np bound non-specifically to all RNAs tested primarily via hydrophobic interactions, whereas phosphomimetic Np showed selectivity for SARS-CoV-2-derived RNAs. WT Np also compacted and irreversibly bound single-stranded DNA; this activity was significantly reduced by phosphorylation. These mechanistic insights support a model where phosphorylated Np functions in RNA replication and chaperoning, while non-phosphorylated Np facilitates genomic RNA packaging. The findings also help to explain infectivity differences and clinical outcomes associated with SRR linker variants.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sullivan, M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morse, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grabarkewitz, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bayachou, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouzina, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wysocki, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Musier-Forsyth, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.12.675721</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein Phosphorylation-induced Functional Switch]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.10.675401v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Sex Differences in Plasma Levels of Endocannabinoids and Related Lipids Before and After acute and repeated mTBI: an exploratory study for plasma biomarkers for mTBI 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.10.675401v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is common diagnosis across all age groups and while most symptoms resolve within a few weeks; between 10 and 25 percent of mTBI patients suffer long-term problems. Known as post-concussion syndrome (PCS), symptoms include headache, a range of cognitive deficits, and depression. Currently, there are no established treatments for PCS and no clear predictive biometrics to determine which patients are at increased risk. Previous studies have identified some protein-derived plasma biomarkers for mTBI, however, the effects of mTBI on lipid signaling molecules and metabolites in blood is largely unknown. Endogenous lipids (endolipids) such as the endocannabinoids (eCBs) and their congeners are lipid signaling molecules that are associated with promoting neuroprotective responses after head trauma in animal models. Here, we examine the plasma lipidome using a rat model of acute and repeated mTBI that we previously demonstrated had a sex dependent change in neuroinflammation wherein females showed a higher degree of neurodegeneration after repeated head-injury than males. Key results of this exploratory lipidomics screen here demonstrates that acute head injury drives significantly more changes in plasma endolipids in males (32%) than females (8%), whereas, on the second day of head injury, only 11% change in males but 15% in females. Some key endolipids were modified in both males are precursors for resolving molecules and this was lacking in females. Given that females with repeated mTBI in this model demonstrated aspects of PCS, this could be an important component in evaluating clinical cases. Endolipids in the screen were measurable in plasma using only 100{micro}L, a volume necessary to be able to perform multiple blood draws on these rodent subjects. This threshold provides evidence that the levels of these endolipids could be readily measured throughout a patients recovery. Therefore, this family of endolipids has the potential to provide data on the progression of the injury and could be another crucial aspect in predicting mTBI outcomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Richter, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woodward, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kulkarni, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferris, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bradshaw, H. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.10.675401</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Sex Differences in Plasma Levels of Endocannabinoids and Related Lipids Before and After acute and repeated mTBI: an exploratory study for plasma biomarkers for mTBI]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.11.675573v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Accounting for longitudinal peak quality metrics with MSstats+ enhances differential analysis in proteomic experiments with data-independent acquisition 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.11.675573v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mass spectrometry-based proteomics with data-independent acquisition benefits from advanced instrumentation and computational analysis. Despite continued improvements, the quality of quantification may be poor for some measurements. As the scale of proteomic experiments increases, these poor-quality measurements are challenging to characterize by hand, yet they undermine the detection of differentially abundant proteins and the downstream biological conclusions. We introduce MSstats+, a computational workflow that takes as input not only peak intensities reported by tools such as Spectronaut, but also quality metrics such as peak shape and retention time, and longitudinal run order profiles of these metrics. MSstats+ translates these metrics into a single measure of quality, and downweights poor quality measurements when detecting differentially abundant proteins. The method offers a natural treatment of missing values, weighting the imputed values according to the quality metrics in the run. We demonstrate the accuracy of the resulting differential analysis in four experiments: two custom benchmarking studies with intentionally induced anomalies, a controlled mixture of proteomes, and a large-scale clinical investigation. MSstats+ is implemented in the family of open-source R/Bioconductor packages MSstats.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Kohler, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dogu, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhattacharya, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karayel, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Magana, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anania, V. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vitek, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.11.675573</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Accounting for longitudinal peak quality metrics with MSstats+ enhances differential analysis in proteomic experiments with data-independent acquisition]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.676403v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Developmental Connectomics of the Mouse Cerebellum 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.676403v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
To uncover the developmental processes that establish the precise patterns of synaptic connectivity in the CNS, we employed a connectomic approach in the mouse cerebellar cortex between birth and 2 weeks of age. There were dramatic quantitative and qualitative changes in the structure and connectivity of cerebellar cells. Parallel fiber synapses onto Purkinje cells increased [~]500-fold, with the most rapid growth taking place a week after birth. To support this profound synaptogenesis, Purkinje cells generated thousands of transient parallel fiber-oriented filopodia that received nascent synapses from parallel fibers. Importantly, we find that granule cells initiate synaptic output onto Purkinje cells only after receiving mossy fiber input, revealing a sequential, input-dependent logic for circuit assembly. In sharp contrast to the concurrent pruning of climbing fiber inputs, parallel fiber connectivity expanded and became highly individualized during development. Despite anatomical overlap, neighboring Purkinje cells share significantly fewer parallel fiber inputs than expected by chance. Moreover, parallel fibers themselves diverged spatially, further enforcing selective input allocation and resulting in highly specific parallel fiber cohorts for each Purkinje cell. Our findings uncover a mechanistic sequence in which early afferent activity and transient cellular structures guide the selective wiring and expansion of parallel fiber input to Purkinje cells, establishing developmental principles that ensure functional specificity in the mature brain.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dhanyasi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meirovitch, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kapoor, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schalek, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manthena, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cervantes, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chimaladinne, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morris, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vaddiparti, I. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dokiburra, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Parampalli, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Berger, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pfister, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murthy, V. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lichtman, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.15.676403</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Developmental Connectomics of the Mouse Cerebellum]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.14.676119v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
CNS-Tau Specific Antibodies Illuminate Disease Signatures Across Tauopathies 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.14.676119v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundAlternative splicing of the MAPT gene produces distinct tau isoforms in the central and peripheral nervous systems (CNS and PNS), yet their respective biological and pathological roles remain poorly understood. Recent studies suggest that CNS-tau may play a key role in amyloid-{beta} associated neurodegeneration in Alzheimers disease (AD), but the absence of isoform-specific tools has limited both mechanistic insight and biomarker development. We aimed to develop and validate CNS-tau-specific monoclonal antibodies and assess their utility in neuropathology and fluid-based biomarker assays across AD and primary tauopathies.

MethodsWe generated six recombinant rabbit monoclonal antibodies targeting a CNS-tau-specific sequence encoded by exons 4 and 5. Specificity and affinity were evaluated via biolayer interferometry, immunoblotting, and tau-expressing HEK293 models. The lead clone, LL-T-1-1, was tested in postmortem brain sections from AD (n = 23), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP, n = 3), and corticobasal degeneration (CBD, n = 3). A second clone, LL-T-1-5, was optimized for use in plasma assays via an ultrasensitive nanoneedle platform, LoD < 1 pg/ml.

ResultsLL-T-1-1 showed nanomolar affinity for CNS-tau and no cross-reactivity with PNS-tau. It selectively labeled dystrophic neurites in AD and all hallmark tau lesions in PSP and CBD without antigen retrieval. LL-T-1-5-based plasma assays revealed CNS-tau levels significantly correlated with cognitive scores (MMSE and QDRS) and differentiated impaired from unimpaired individuals.

ConclusionsCNS-tau-specific antibodies LL-T-1-1 and LL-T-1-5 provide new tools for neuropathology and fluid biomarker development across tauopathies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zheng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slominski, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quan, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saba, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bellier, J.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoo, H.-B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Roman, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hennessey, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wijethunga, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okyay, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, H.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Selkoe, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chhatwal, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.14.676119</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[CNS-Tau Specific Antibodies Illuminate Disease Signatures Across Tauopathies]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.16.676600v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evidence for the Transient Presence of Atypical Astrocytes in Mice Following a Single, Closed-Head Mild Traumatic Brain Injury 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.16.676600v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) affects roughly 42 million people each year, causes a variety of physical, behavioral, and cognitive symptoms, and increases the risk for developing neurological disorders, including post-traumatic headache (PTH) and Alzheimers disease (AD). Multiple molecular and cellular changes occur following mTBI; here we focus on astrocytes - cells that respond to brain injury and are critical to maintaining neuronal and circuit homeostasis. While some astrocytes become reactive after mTBI, others adopt an  atypical state characterized by the loss of multiple functional astrocyte proteins, including glutamate transporters (GLT-1, GLAST) and ion channels (Kir4.1), without upregulation of prototypical reactive astrocyte markers (glial fibrillary acidic protein [GFAP]). Previous studies have shown that repeated mTBI causes atypical astrocytes (AtAs) that can persist for months, but we know much less about whether a single mTBI causes similar astrocyte phenotypes. To address this, we employed a closed-head mild traumatic brain injury (chmTBI) model in male and female mice and quantified the abundance of AtAs both acutely (3-days) and chronically (1-month) after a single injury. We found that 3-days after chmTBI, AtAs were present in areas subject to blunt force trauma (BFT), consistent with previous reports, as well as in other brain regions presumably affected by diffuse injury. One month after chmTBI, however, the proportion of AtAs was similar between chmTBI and sham injured mice, thereby suggesting AtAs do not persist long term in this model. Consistent with previous studies, this chmTBI model did not induce significant GFAP-positive reactive astrocytes as assayed using immunohistochemistry, at either timepoint. Overall, we show an increase in AtAs 3-days after a single chmTBI that returns to sham levels when examined 1-month after injury. This suggests that after a single mTBI, AtAs are present but do not persist long term, unlike in repeated mTBI where AtAs persist for months after injury.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Blackman, J. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krauss, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quinones, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tirja, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sommer, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Munoz-Ballester, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noubary, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armbruster, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robel, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dulla, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.16.676600</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evidence for the Transient Presence of Atypical Astrocytes in Mice Following a Single, Closed-Head Mild Traumatic Brain Injury]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.16.676463v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dimethylindanoylindole isomers revealed different pharmacological profiles at CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.16.676463v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) represent one of the most rapidly growing classes of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and exhibit higher efficacy and potency at CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) compared to {Delta}9-tetrahydrocannabinol, contributing to distinct adverse effects absent in cannabis use. The indole-based SCRAs GBD-002 and GBD-003, incorporating 2,2-dimethylindane, differ by a single substituent position yet display markedly different receptor binding profiles. We evaluated both the GBD-002/GBD-003 pair and an analogous structural isomer pair using bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) assays to assess key CB1 and CB2 transducer pathways. Site-directed mutagenesis characterized contributions of non-conserved residues between CB1 and CB2 and aromatic residues on CB1 transmembrane helix 2 (TM2). This study provided insights into the molecular determinants of cannabinoid receptor selectivity and efficacy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Oh, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guo, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lucaj, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmed, K. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dudley, G. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yano, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.16.676463</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dimethylindanoylindole isomers revealed different pharmacological profiles at CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.16.676549v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Engineering NIR probes to enhance affinity and clinical workflow compatibility for prostate cancer imaging 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.16.676549v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Positive surgical margins following radical prostatectomy increase the risk of biochemical recurrence and subsequent disease progression. Fluorescence guided surgery (FGS) using targeted contrast agents has shown clinical benefits for several cancer types. However, current prostate cancer targeted imaging probes exhibit long pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles, necessitating extended waiting periods or repeated hospital visits, limiting their integration into standard clinical workflow. To overcome this critical clinical compatibility challenge, we developed an innovative tri-compartment, chemistry-driven probe design strategy. Specifically, we developed a congeneric library of near infrared (NIR) water soluble fluorescent probes incorporating: (1) a glutamic acid-urea-lysine (EuK) ligand targeting prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA); (2) a NIR heptamethine cyanine fluorophore optimized for enhanced PSMA binding via secondary binding sites interactions; and (3) distinct PK modulators residing outside the PSMA binding pocket to promote rapid off-target tissue clearance. While molecular docking scores, photophysical properties and live-cell staining results showed similar overall performance, probes bearing PK modulators produced stronger tumor-specific fluorescence in vivo than the control lacking a PK modulator. This effort enabled identification of a lead probe with robust tumor targeting and accelerated off-target clearance, providing optimal tumor-specific signal and contrast in a timeframe, fully compatible with robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) timelines.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Malankar, G. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Szafran, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pacce, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Devereux, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tao, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomes, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greer, W. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rounds, C. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Masillati, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gergis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ledvina, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wong, M. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niedre, M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gibbs, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.16.676549</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Engineering NIR probes to enhance affinity and clinical workflow compatibility for prostate cancer imaging]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.18.676925v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Vascular-Perfusable Human 3D Brain-on-Chip 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.18.676925v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Development and delivery of treatments for neurological diseases are limited by the tight and selective human blood-brain barrier (BBB). Although animal models have been important research and preclinical tools, the rodent BBB exhibits species differences and fails to capture the complexity of human genetics. Microphysiological systems incorporating human-derived cells hold great potential for modeling disease and therapeutic development, with advantages in screening throughput, real-time monitoring, and tunable genetic backgrounds when combined with induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology. Existing 3D BBB-on-chip systems have incorporated iPSC-derived endothelial cells but not the other major brain cell types from iPSCs, each of which contributes to brain physiology and disease. Here we developed a 3D Brain-Chip system incorporating endothelial cells, pericytes, astrocytes, neurons, microglia, and oligodendroglia from iPSCs. To enable this multicellular 3D co-culture in-chip, we designed a GelChip microfluidic platform using a 3D printing-based approach and dextran-based engineered hydrogel. Leveraging this platform, we co-cultured and characterized iPSC-derived brain-on-chips and modeled the brain microvasculature of APOE4, the strongest known genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimers disease. These 3D brain-on-chips provide a versatile system to assess BBB vascular morphology and function, investigate downstream neurological effects in disease, and screen therapeutics to optimize delivery to the brain.

Significance StatementThe blood-brain barrier (BBB) is both a contributing factor to neurological disease and a major obstacle to its treatment, yet human-relevant models remain limited. Most existing brain-on-chip systems incorporate only subsets of BBB cell types and cannot capture the full cellular complexity of the human neurovascular unit. Here, we establish a vascular-perfusable 3D Brain-Chip using human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived brain cells including endothelial cells, pericytes, astrocytes, neurons, microglia, and oligodendroglia. This system enables systematic analysis of human genetic risk factors, such as APOE4 in Alzheimers disease, and provides a powerful platform to investigate BBB function and dysfunction and accelerate the development of more effective neurological therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stanton, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinals, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Choi, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Truong, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lozano Cruz, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hawkins, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sarcar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Volkova, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>King, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agbas, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nakano, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chiu, C.-C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bubnys, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wright, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Staab, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bikdash, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Forden, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Langer, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tsai, L.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.18.676925</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Vascular-Perfusable Human 3D Brain-on-Chip]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.17.676955v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Principles of protein abundance regulation across single cells in a mammalian tissue 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.17.676955v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Protein synthesis and clearance are major regulatory steps of gene expression, but their in vivo regulatory roles across the cells comprising complex tissues remains unexplored. Here, we systematically quantify protein synthesis and clearance across over 4,200 cells from a primary tissue. Through integration with single-cell transcriptomics, we report the first quantitative analysis of how individual cell types regulate their proteomes across the continuum of gene expression. Our analysis quantifies the relative contributions of RNA abundance, translation, and protein clearance to the abundance variation of thousands of proteins. These results reveal a putative organizing principle: The contributions of both translation and protein clearance are linearly dependent on the cell growth rate. Further, we find that some proteins are primarily regulated by one mechanism (RNA abundance, translation, or clearance) across all cell types while the dominant regulation of other proteins is cell-type specific. Age related changes in protein abundance are cell-type specific and correlated to changes in protein clearance. Our reliable multimodal measurements enabled quantifying and functionally interpreting molecular variation across single cells from the same cell type. The protein-protein correlations are substantially stronger than the mRNA-mRNA ones both for directly interacting proteins and for functional protein sets. This difference is mediated by protein clearance regulation. Further, the protein correlations allow identifying cell-type specific functional clusters. These clusters vary across cell types, revealing differences in metabolic processes coordination, partially regulated by protein degradation. Our approach reveals organizing principles determining the relative contributions of translation and protein clearance and provides a scalable framework for investigating protein regulation in mammalian tissues.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Leduc, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shipkovenska, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franks, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Slavov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.17.676955</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Principles of protein abundance regulation across single cells in a mammalian tissue]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.20.677417v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pore-Based RNA Evaluation for Control of Integrity, Sequence, and Errors - Quality Control (PRECISE-QC) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.20.677417v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
RNA is at the forefront of therapeutics and gene editing technologies. Yet, RNA synthesis remains expensive and low-yield. Consequently, most oligo manufacturers abstain from synthesizing RNA oligos longer than 60-mers. Solid-phase synthesis is the current standard production method but is often fraught with low coupling yields for canonical nucleotides and even poorer coupling for modifications. This results in high levels of byproducts such as truncations and RNA infidelity. Existing analytical methods can only provide quality control metrics such as RNA length distribution or limited composition information for short oligos. Here, we developed a standard quality control metric using Oxford Nanopore direct RNA sequencing to obtain direct insight into RNA length distribution, sequence, and presence of RNA modification sites. Our pipeline identifies error-prone regions and truncation sites that occur during synthesis. Furthermore, problematic steps in the synthesis are identified and repaired. We show that our platform can produce and assess CRISPR guide RNAs with high-fidelity and higher cleavage activity, and further, that modifications can be reliably detected. We envision that our tool will serve as an integral method for quality control pipelines that assess the integrity and accuracy of synthetic RNAs and guide the improved synthesis and yield of synthesized RNAs.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=86 SRC="FIGDIR/small/677417v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (19K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1163a7forg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@5a709corg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@19737e6org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d71a60_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yee, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boyko, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pandit, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Royzen, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.20.677417</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pore-Based RNA Evaluation for Control of Integrity, Sequence, and Errors - Quality Control (PRECISE-QC)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.22.675887v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cytoplasmic localization of PUS7 facilitates a pseudouridine-dependent enhancement of cellular stress tolerance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.22.675887v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Pseudouridine ({Psi}) is an abundant post-transcriptional modification found across all classes of RNA. It has been widely speculated that {Psi} inclusion in mRNAs might provide an avenue for cells to control gene expression post-transcriptionally. Here we demonstrate that one of the principal mRNA pseudouridylating enzymes, pseudouridine synthase 7 (PUS7), exhibits a stress-induced accumulation in the cytoplasm of yeast and human epithelial lung cells. Stress-induced and cytoplasmic localization of PUS7 promote {Psi}-incorporation into hundreds of mRNA targets. Furthermore, engineered PUS7 cytoplasmic localization increases cellular fitness under ROS and divalent metal ion stress. Consistent with this, transcripts modified upon PUS7 cytoplasmic localization are enriched within mRNAs encoding proteins involved in divalent metal metabolism and ROS stress pathways. In contrast, tRNA sites modified by PUS7 ({Psi}13 and {Psi}35 are unperturbed). Quantitative proteomics reveal a reshaping of the proteome upon PUS7 relocalization under stress, with proteins involved in metal and ROS homeostasis being particularly sensitive to PUS7 localization. Collectively, our data demonstrate that PUS7 localization alters mRNA pseudouridylation patterns to modulate protein production and enhance cellular fitness.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ruan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engels, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burroughs, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stower, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tzadikario, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Powell, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bloch, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fanari, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akeson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eyler, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weidmann, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Contreras, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koutmou, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.22.675887</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cytoplasmic localization of PUS7 facilitates a pseudouridine-dependent enhancement of cellular stress tolerance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.22.677777v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Effects of the Neutral CB1 Receptor Antagonist AM6527 on Spontaneous, Consummatory, and Motivated Behavior in Mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.22.677777v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
RationaleThe cannabinoid type-1 receptor (CB1R) signaling pathway plays a central role in regulating motivational and feeding behaviors. Neutral CB1R antagonists represent a promising therapeutic class with potentially fewer adverse effects than inverse agonists, yet their behavioral effects remain incompletely characterized.

ObjectivesWe investigated the behavioral profile of AM6527, orally bioavailable neutral CB1R antagonist, across naturalistic and operant paradigms in male mice. To evaluate dopaminergic involvement in AM6527s effects, we employed several pharmacological interventions.

ResultsUsing machine learning-based Motion-Sequencing (MoSeq), which parses spontaneous behavior into sub-second syllables, we found that AM6527 did not affect overall speed in an open field, however, it increased the self-directed behaviors and reduced specific locomotor syllables at the highest dose tested. In a naturalistic reward consumption paradigm, AM6527 produced a dose-dependent reduction in milk intake. Operant conditioning paradigms revealed robust suppression of motivated responding on fixed ratio-3 and progressive ratio (PR) schedules for palatable milk reward, with the greatest impact on high-baseline performers under PR conditions. To understand the dopaminergic involvement, we co-administered dopaminergic drugs (targeting D1R, D2R, or dopamine transporter) which resulted in partial rescue of operant responding, indicating dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic contributions to AM6527s observed behavioral effects.

ConclusionOur findings suggest that neutral CB1R antagonism suppresses consummatory and motivated behaviors via dopamine-dependent and -independent mechanisms. By leveraging sub-second behavioral analysis with MoSeq, we further reveal distinct changes in spontaneous behavior, underscoring the relevance of CB-based treatments for maladaptive appetitive and motivational states in both psychiatric and metabolic disorder.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ecevitoglu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flanagan-Burt, Q. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moon, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ji, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makriyannis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suh, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.22.677777</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Effects of the Neutral CB1 Receptor Antagonist AM6527 on Spontaneous, Consummatory, and Motivated Behavior in Mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.24.678227v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rare bioactive tau oligomers from Alzheimer brain support both templated misfolding and fibril formation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.24.678227v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
In Alzheimers disease, both classical neurofibrillary tangles, and diffusible, aqueous soluble (High Molecular Weight, or HMW) species are able to support templated misfolding. How these tau proteoforms relate is uncertain. Using sequential size exclusion and anion exchange chromatography, we fractionated the HMW tau population and found both seed competent, and seed not competent proteoforms. Super resolution, atomic force, and immunogold electron microscopy confirmed that the size and conformation of both bioactive and non-bioactive tau proteoforms are similar, with dimers, trimers, and tetramers predominating. The presence of surface phosphorylation correlates with seeding capacity. Bioactive tau at fMol concentrations can induce seeding in a reporter cell. The soluble bioactive species support aggregation of a truncated repeat domain tau construct into thioflavin T positive fibrils and retain seeding activity over serial amplification in vitro and in cellulo, whereas non-bioactive oligomeric species do not. Together, these findings indicate that oligomeric assembly is required but not sufficient for seeding; instead, specific biochemical attributes of a rare oligomeric tau subset confer self-propagating, prion-like templated misfolding.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Quittot, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sivasankaran, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boeken, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chun, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wiedmer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Derosla, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martins, M. B. M. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brooks, F. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meisl, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cotton, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arumuganainar, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stewart, T. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Melloni, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frosh, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oakley, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makowski, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanunu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klenerman, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hyman, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-09-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.24.678227</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rare bioactive tau oligomers from Alzheimer brain support both templated misfolding and fibril formation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-09-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.29.679269v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Stage-specific transcriptomics of a leader cell reveals cell machineries driving collective invasion 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.29.679269v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Collective cell invasion underlies organ development, epithelial repair, and cancer metastasis. "Leader cells" remodel extracellular matrix, sense guidance cues, reorganize their cytoskeleton, and coordinate follower cells, but the molecular programs enabling these functions remain unclear. Here, we present a stage-specific transcriptomic dataset of the C. elegans gonadal leader cell, the distal tip cell (DTC), which invades basement membrane and guides germ cells to form U-shaped gonadal arms. Comparing invasive larval-stage DTCs with non-invasive adult-stage DTCs defines the molecular signature of an actively invading leader cell in vivo. Our dataset recapitulates known regulators of gonad morphogenesis and reveals numerous uncharacterized genes with potential roles in leader cell activity. As proof of concept, we identify vesicular trafficking proteins as enriched in invading DTCs, and demonstrate their importance for gonad development using endogenous tagging and DTC-specific RNAi. We also catalog diverse DTC-specific knockdown phenotypes. This resource establishes a molecular framework for leader cell activity and a platform to investigate conserved mechanisms of invasive migration.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Agarwal, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maimon Zielonka, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gingold, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stolzenbach, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anava, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antonova, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rechavi, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zaidel-Bar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.29.679269</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Stage-specific transcriptomics of a leader cell reveals cell machineries driving collective invasion]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.29.679406v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multi-Scale Kinetics Modeling and Advanced Assay for mRNA-Lipid Nanoparticle Potency Assessment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.29.679406v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
mRNA lipid nanoparticle (mRNA-LNP) technology has attracted global attention, especially in vaccine development, due to its superior delivery efficiency, molecular stability, and safety profile. However, evaluating mRNA-LNP potency--defined as the quantifiable biological response elicited by the product--remains costly and time-consuming when relying solely on in vitro experiments. Rapid and reliable potency assessment is hindered by limited mechanistic understanding of delivery processes and sparse experimental data. To address these challenges, we present a mechanism-informed, multi-scale kinetic modeling framework that quantitatively captures the coupled dynamics across particle-level, cellular, and macroscopic scales. This model incorporates variability in LNP-cell interactions and accounts for critical factors such as dosage, LNP and cell size distributions, and cell proliferation dynamics--all of which influence delivery efficiency and response variability. By integrating advanced multi-omics assays--such as single-molecule fluorescent in situ hybridization (smFISH), which enables single-cell resolution of mRNA and protein expression--our framework leverages heterogeneous, multi-scale data to support mechanistically grounded modeling of mRNA delivery and enable robust predictions of therapeutic potency.

Graphical Abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=143 SRC="FIGDIR/small/679406v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanyal, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rouhanifard, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.29.679406</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multi-Scale Kinetics Modeling and Advanced Assay for mRNA-Lipid Nanoparticle Potency Assessment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.01.679649v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rational Design of Multiclade Coronavirus Spike Immunodominant Domain Nanoparticles Elicit Broad Antibody Responses 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.01.679649v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Four seasonal endemic human coronaviruses (EhCoVs), HKU1-CoV, OC43-CoV, 229E-CoV, and NL63-CoV, are culprits of mild upper respiratory and periodic severe diseases in vulnerable populations. Despite their prevalence, understanding EhCoVs antigenic and immune signatures remains elusive. SARS-CoV-2 has evolved as the fifth EhCoV, requiring seasonal vaccination in most parts of the world, and currently, no other EhCoV vaccines are available. SARS-CoV-2 co-infection with EhCoVs increases disease severity; thus, combined vaccination may provide increased protection against seasonal EhCoVs overall. Here, we explored Spike (S) receptor binding domain (RBD) vs. N-terminal domain (NTD) B-cell immunodominance in EhCoV-positive convalescent donors and immunogenicity in mice. We found that while antibody and B-cell isotypes were relatively dominant to S NTD, mice immunized with S RBD elicited significantly higher binding and neutralizing antibody (nAb) responses. With that knowledge, we used computational methods to infer that EhCoV S sequences evolve into two main clades and designed chimeric immunodominant domains (IDDs) from both clades for each EhCoV. IDDs were scaffolded onto two-component nanoparticles (NPs) displaying each IDD separately (monovalent IDD NP); three {beta}-EhCoV IDDs (Mosaic-3 IDD NP); or five EhCoVs IDDs (Mosaic-5 IDD NP). Mice immunized with mosaic IDD NPs, but not soluble IDD antigens nor monovalent IDD NPs, elicited potent, broadly cross-reactive binding and neutralizing antibody (Ab) responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants, other EhCoVs, and Sarbecoviruses. System serology revealed that all four IDD immunogens elicited distinct Ab subclasses and Fc-effector functions, with mosaic-5 IDD NPs eliciting the most de novo Ab subclasses, distributions, and broader Fc-mediated immune mechanisms. Dissection of vaccine-immune sera revealed polyclonal Ab responses against multiple non-overlapping cross-reactive S epitopes. Due to elicitation of broad Ab responses with combinatory functionality, IDD NPs open new horizons for developing first-in-class supraseasonal EhCoV vaccine candidates, with potential to decrease frequent SARS-CoV-2 sequence updates and protect against other EhCoVs. Moreover, elicitation of Ab breadth that spans pandemic-threat Sarbecoviruses gives mosaic IDD NPs promise towards pandemic preparedness.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dzuvor, C. K. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moak, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McManus, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dzordzorme, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joseph, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foley, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gordon, I. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Novik, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holman, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dropulic, L. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNamara, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corbett-Helaire, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.01.679649</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rational Design of Multiclade Coronavirus Spike Immunodominant Domain Nanoparticles Elicit Broad Antibody Responses]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679514v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
GOA-1 regulates spermathecal transits 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679514v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
G protein signaling regulates calcium dynamics and contractility in the C. elegans spermatheca. G protein-coupled receptors activate heterotrimeric G proteins, triggering downstream cascades, including the Gs-mediated activation of adenylyl cyclase and subsequent Protein Kinase A (PKA) activation. Our previous work identified GSA-1/Gs and PKA as key modulators of Ca2+ oscillations and tissue contractility within the C. elegans spermatheca. In this study, we show that the inhibitory Gi/o subunit GOA-1 regulates spermathecal transits. We employed TurboID proximity labeling and mass spectrometry to identify 16 candidate interactors of GOA-1. Depletion of these candidates by RNAi did not yield overt spermathecal transit defects.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sadeghian, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.30.679514</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[GOA-1 regulates spermathecal transits]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679553v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Long-Read epigenetic clocks identify improved brain aging predictions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679553v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epigenetic clocks are widely used to estimate biological aging, yet most are built from array-based data from peripheral tissues of predominantly European-ancestry individuals, limiting generalizability. Here, we present aging clocks trained using GenoML, an automated machine learning platform for clinical and multiomics data, on DNA methylation from Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing. These models leverage over 28 million CpG sites across individuals of African and European ancestry. Our findings highlight the power of long-read methylation data for constructing accurate, ancestry-aware aging clocks and emphasize the importance of inclusive training datasets.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Grant, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makarious, M. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meredith, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moller, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grant-Peters, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hicks, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mandal, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auluck, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leonard, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kuznetsov, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weller, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferrucci, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cookson, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ryten, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nalls, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Billingsley, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.09.30.679553</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Long-Read epigenetic clocks identify improved brain aging predictions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.01.678241v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The genetic architecture of trabecular bone score and association with fracture: a genome-wide association and meta-analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.01.678241v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundTrabecular bone score (TBS) is a texture-based measurement derived from DXA scans, which describes the distribution of mineral across the vertebral bodies. Identifying its genetic determinants is crucial for enhancing understanding of its biological basis and clarifying its relationship with fracture risk.

MethodsWe conducted a large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS) of TBS from 44,767 participants (95.08% European ancestry). Sex heterogeneity was assessed through sex-stratified GWAS. Post-GWAS analyses included functional annotation, gene-set enrichment analysis, and cis-expression quantitative trait locus (cis-eQTL) colocalization. Two-sample and multivariable Mendelian randomization (MR) were employed to investigate the causal effect of TBS on fractures.

FindingsWe identified 33 independent variants associated with TBS, which explained 4.06% of TBS phenotypic variance. All the discovered signals map to previously identified BMD-associated loci. Additionally, we identified genetic variants in the RAB11FIP3 locus that exhibited a sex-heterogeneous effect, being associated with TBS exclusively in males. Functional annotation and colocalization identified functional genes related to TBS. The two-sample and multivariable MR analyses indicated that TBS potentially has an independent causal effect on fracture risk.

InterpretationOur study unveiled 33 independent loci associated with TBS, all in BMD-associated loci. One locus was further identified as associated with TBS only in males. MR results suggested that genetically derived TBS may be causally associated with fracture risk at different sites, potentially beyond BMD. This study provides insights into the TBS genetic architecture and uncovers its potential clinical applications in fracture risk prediction.

FundingAll funding information can be found in the Acknowledgements section.

Research in contextO_ST_ABSEvidence before this studyC_ST_ABSOsteoporosis is a common disease prevalent in older adults, mainly diagnosed by low bone mineral density and disruption of bone architecture. While the genetic determinants of bone mass have been well studied, the genetic architecture of bone features beyond BMD remains largely unknown.

Added value of this studyThis study presents a large genome-wide association meta-analysis of the trabecular bone score (TBS), a measurement of trabecular distribution of bone mineralization across vertebral bodies. Our study identified 33 independent variants associated with TBS and one association signal only in males. Functional annotation highlighted crucial genes related to TBS. The two-sample and multivariable Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses suggested that TBS may be causally linked with fracture risk, potentially independent of BMD.

Implications of all the available evidenceOur study represents an expansion of the traditional bone density phenotype used in most previous skeletal genetic studies. Based on the findings that all of the significant loci for TBS have been previously identified in GWAS of BMD, we conclude that TBS-associated variants have pleiotropic effects affecting not only mineral density but also the distribution patterns of minerals in the cancellous bone. Continuing to perform genetic studies of new skeletal phenotypes beyond BMD could ultimately impact the management and prediction of osteoporosis patients.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tibbitts, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>LI, G. H.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Frysz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lary, C. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Trajanoska, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Das, N. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Groot, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheung, C.-L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van Schoor, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Uitterlinden, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>van der Velde, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tobias, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rivadeneira, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evans, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kiel, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kemp, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Medina-Gomez, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.01.678241</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The genetic architecture of trabecular bone score and association with fracture: a genome-wide association and meta-analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.03.680101v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A switch in collagen expression regulates cessation of distal tip cell migration in C. elegans 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.03.680101v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Development of the C. elegans gonad requires precise regulation of cell migration. The distal tip cell (DTC) guides the elongation of the gonad into its final U-shaped structure before halting in adulthood. How cessation of elongation is regulated remains unknown. Here, we analyze an RNA-seq data set isolated from stage-specific DTCs to uncover the temporal gene expression dynamics underlying this process. Collagens emerged as the most enriched gene family during the transition from migratory larval stages to adulthood. We identify distinct temporal waves of collagen expression, culminating in a core adult-specific module that coincides with migration cessation. Functional analysis by RNAi depletion revealed that many collagens upregulated in adulthood are required for timely migration arrest, while others affect gonad shape. Perturbation of collagen remodeling enzymes phenocopied these effects. Our findings uncover a stage-specific collagen program in the DTC and suggest that terminal migration arrest is actively reinforced by matrix remodeling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stolzenbach, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Griffin, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Agarwal, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zaidel-Bar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cram, E. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.03.680101</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A switch in collagen expression regulates cessation of distal tip cell migration in C. elegans]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.679762v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multi-team conflict resolution is ineffective for stable decision making 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.679762v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Competition between distinct groups is fundamental to complex systems, from political coalitions and economic markets to gene regulatory networks (GRNs) controlling cell fate. Strikingly, cell-fate decision systems predominantly employ binary competition between two mutually inhibitory teams of genes, despite multi-team competition being common in social and ecological contexts. This raises a fundamental question: does binary decision-making offer functional advantages over multi-team systems? We systematically analyzed multi-team competitive networks using Boolean dynamics on signed directed graphs, extending well-characterized two-team GRN architectures to systems with three or more mutually inhibitory teams. Three-team networks produced significantly less stable outcomes than two-team systems, with steady states showing higher structural frustration and increased sensitivity to perturbations. Multi-team systems exhibited unpredictable transitions even under controlled perturbations, especially at lower densities typical of real networks. Networks with four or more teams failed to maintain distinct stable states entirely. Using spectral analysis, we show that team structure can be predicted from network eigenproperties, extending structural balance theory to directed signed networks. Our findings explain why binary decisions dominate biology and provide insights into coalition instability in social systems, market dynamics, and organizational structures. This work establishes fundamental stability principles for competitive networks across disciplines.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Anand, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haldar, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moger, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gedeon, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hari, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.06.679762</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multi-team conflict resolution is ineffective for stable decision making]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.10.681761v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Design and fabrication of demountable 3D microphysiological systems for modeling barrier function and underlying tissue interactions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.10.681761v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Several recent advances in microphysiological systems (MPSs) or organ-on-chip technology have demonstrated its potential for replacing traditional in vitro and animal models in the coming years. Despite the physiological relevance and cost-effectiveness of organ chips, there are several hurdles that must be overcome for widespread adoption for biological studies. Many shortcomings of manufacturing and scalability have been overcome by a transition from PDMS to thermoplastics. However, challenges have arisen in these sealed, brittle systems related to end-point tissue analyses, harvest, and high-resolution imaging, which is particularly difficult for multi-layer organ chips. Here, we present low-cost organ chips that are fluidically sealed but demountable, fabricated using a cut-and-assemble method without the need for cleanroom technologies. We have validated the capabilities of this method by demonstrating the culture of human aortic smooth muscle cells and induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural cells, encapsulated in gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogel on chip, for up to 27 days. The 3D culture layer of the organ chip was removed, and high-resolution images were obtained via immunostaining. Furthermore, these organ chips facilitate rapid redesign and manufacture for alternative tissue and/or interface systems. To our knowledge, this is the first innervated organ chip with multiple removable cell culture layers, as well as the first humanized nerve-artery model that includes a three-dimensional hydrogel culture. In future work, these unique features of our platform can be utilized for investigating the crosstalk mechanisms between different cell types in co-culture.

Impact StatementWe present here a new method for fabricating low-cost demountable organ-on-a-chip platforms. This method leverages our recent cut & assemble method for layered 3D organ chips comprised of gas impermeable thermoplastics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Banerjee, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brady, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abu-Absi, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miller, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schellberg, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.10.681761</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Design and fabrication of demountable 3D microphysiological systems for modeling barrier function and underlying tissue interactions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.12.681881v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The neural correlates of novel versus familiar metaphors in healthy young adults: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.12.681881v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite extensive investigation, the neural correlates of metaphor processing remain debated. Poor theoretical and experimental control of variables that drive metaphor activation-- particularly the constructs of novelty and familiarity--may be the reason for past discrepancies between studies. To address this issue, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and a carefully designed paradigm modified from Cardillo et al. (2012) to investigate how neural activation varies by sentence type (metaphorical versus literal sentences) and novelty (completely novel versus familiarized phrases). Activity was significantly greater for metaphorical over literal sentences in the left inferior frontal gyrus, pars triangularis (LIFGtri), left inferior parietal cortex, right IFG, pars opercularis (RIFGop), and right angular gyrus (RAG). Novel metaphors to which participants had no prior exposure had significantly higher (albeit weak) effects within RIFGop, RAG, and right middle temporal gyrus (RMTG) compared to novel metaphors to which participants were exposed just prior to the fNIRS experiment. Pre-exposed, more familiar metaphors significantly activated a wider network of regions compared to novel metaphors, including bilateral middle frontal gyrus (MFG), bilateral IFGtri, and LMTG. A greater response time difference between conditions was associated with less LMFG activity for metaphors over literal sentences but higher LMTG activity for novel over more familiar metaphors. Taken together, these findings suggest that metaphors--particularly novel metaphors--do engage right hemisphere cortex more than other phrase types (literal sentences, more familiar metaphors) but that the effects are weaker than condition differences within canonical left language network and domain-general multiple demand network regions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schwartz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gilmore, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Meier, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.12.681881</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The neural correlates of novel versus familiar metaphors in healthy young adults: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.12.681883v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Examining oculomotor behavior in central vision loss with a gaze-contingent display 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.12.681883v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Patients with central vision loss due to macular degeneration (MD) must rely on their peripheral vision for tasks normally performed by the fovea. Many patients develop a preferred retinal locus (PRL), an eccentric retinal location used as a substitute for the damaged fovea in tasks such as face recognition, navigation, and reading. However, the mechanisms underlying PRL development remain elusive, and no single hypothesis fully explains its characteristics. Investigations into PRL development are hindered by oculomotor assessments, which often focus on fixation ability while neglecting other eye movement characteristics and potentially conflating different behaviors over time. In previous work, we introduced a series of oculomotor metrics in cases of simulated central vision loss, demonstrating that complex profiles of eye movement behavior can be extracted from a simple visual task. Here we present longitudinal data from 10 patients with MD as evidence of the feasibility of using these metrics to characterize different profiles of eye movements following central vision loss. Consistent with findings in healthy individuals using artificial scotoma, the metrics reveal substantial individual differences in behavior, both at baseline and after visual training. Overall, patients exhibit significantly higher saccadic re-referencing than controls, despite larger inter-individual differences. These metrics provide a detailed evaluation of oculomotor behavior in patients with central vision loss and offer a valuable tool for assessing progress in training protocols.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Maniglia, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Maxwell, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vice, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Visscher, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seitz, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.12.681883</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Examining oculomotor behavior in central vision loss with a gaze-contingent display]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.13.682123v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Random, fragile, or correlated: Mechanisms of synteny decay in mammals 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.13.682123v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We formalize three models of genome evolution, yielding analytical distributions of synteny block sizes between pairs of genomes. To evaluate each model, we fit theoretical synteny block size distributions to empirical distributions from a comparative analysis of nearly 200 mammalian genomes. Between the random breakage model (RBM), with uniformly distributed breakpoints, the fragile breakage model (FBM) with breakpoint hotspots, and what we term the correlated breakage model (CBM) with pairs of nearby breakpoints, we find that the FBM and CBM are far more consistent with mammalian genome evolution than the RBM. Inferred parameters of each model qualitatively agree with previous characterizations of mammalian genome evolution. The FBM and CBM perform comparably with each other, suggesting that either model could serve as an improved null model of genome evolution to use in statistical tests for syntenic regions that are unlikely to exist due to random chance.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Moffett, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.13.682123</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Random, fragile, or correlated: Mechanisms of synteny decay in mammals]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.16.682720v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structures of folding intermediates on BAM show diverse substrates fold by a uniform mechanism 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.16.682720v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The outer membranes of mitochondria, chloroplasts, and Gram-negative bacteria contain {beta}-barrel membrane proteins that are assembled by conserved multi-subunit machines. In bacteria, the {beta}-barrel assembly machine (BAM) folds over a hundred compositionally different substrates into barrels that vary greatly in size. Some larger barrels require globular proteins to plug the barrel lumen. How a single machine can assemble such different barrels is unknown. Here we report three structures representing progressively folded stages of a 16-stranded barrel engaged with BAM, as well as the structure of a late-stage folding intermediate of a 26-stranded substrate folding around its soluble lipoprotein plug on BAM. We find that BAM catalyzes folding of these substrates by a uniform mechanism in which BAM undergoes major distortions to accommodate the nascent barrel.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Thomson, B. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marquez, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rawson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>dos Santos, T. M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harrison, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kahne, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.16.682720</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structures of folding intermediates on BAM show diverse substrates fold by a uniform mechanism]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.19.683222v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Patterns of intersubject correlations parallel organizational gradients during naturalistic viewing 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.19.683222v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent studies have robustly demonstrated that human cortical function can be described through sensory-transmodal gradients of cortical function, while naturalistic movie watching paradigms have been leveraged to index cortical synchronization. We leveraged two independent 7T movie fMRI datasets to assess correlations between intersubject correlation and functional gradients across movies, datasets, and spatial scales. At the whole-brain level, we observed robust relationships between intersubject correlations and a visual-transmodal connectivity gradient which was independent of movie content. Within functional networks, correlations were particularly pronounced for the visual, dorsal attention, and default mode networks. Our results demonstrate that naturalistic paradigms can provide targeted insight into multiscale processing hierarchies. Robust relationships across movies suggest that movie-watching can be viewed as a brain state that is independent of movie-content. Overall, this work suggests an important confluence of within-subject functional organizational axes and inter-subject synchronization when the brain is engaged in the processing of naturalistic stimuli.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Smith, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Samara, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cabalo, D. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ngo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shearer, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bernhardt, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vanderwal, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.19.683222</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Patterns of intersubject correlations parallel organizational gradients during naturalistic viewing]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.21.683665v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Benchmarking Perturbation Tools for the Noncoding Genome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.21.683665v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Deciphering the functionality of the noncoding genome which includes important cis-regulatory elements (CREs) and transcribed noncoding RNA genes remains technically challenging. Here, using massively parallel genetic screening, we systematically benchmark the performance of five representative loss-of-function perturbation tools, including single guide RNA (gRNA) mediated SpCas9 cleavage or CRISPR interference, and paired gRNA (pgRNA) involved dual-SpCas9, Big Papi (paired SpCas9 and SaCas9) or dual-enAsCas12a fragment deletion methods, in decoding the roles of the noncoding genome. For targeting CREs such as enhancer, dual-SpCas9 outperforms other methods with superior efficiency of destroying functional genomic regions. For perturbing noncoding RNA genes, in addition to dual-SpCas9, other RNA-targeting methods such as RNA interference are recommended to discriminate transcript-dependent or -independent roles. A deep learning model DeepDC with associated web server is built to facilitate optimal dual-SpCas9 pgRNA design for efficiently deleting a genomic fragment. Together, our work provides practical guidance on selecting appropriate loss-of-function tools to resolve the functional complexity of the noncoding genome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Luo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhong, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.21.683665</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Benchmarking Perturbation Tools for the Noncoding Genome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.21.683707v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Quasi-Stationary Distribution Bound for Fault Analysis in Gene Regulatory Networks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.21.683707v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The inherent stochastic fluctuations in signaling molecules of Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) add unpredictability, complicating the design of robust synthetic GRNs that must function within precise ranges. Multi-stable GRNs, such as toggle switches, are central to systems like biosensors and logic gates but can fail due to unintended transitions between stable states caused by the fluctuations. Despite their importance, tools to characterize the probability distributions around stable states remain limited. We present a mathematical framework to analyze these multi-stable systems using continuous-time Markov chains (CTMCs) and quasi-stationary distributions. This framework is broadly applicable, requiring only that the state space is connected, making it applicable to a variety of systems. We then apply the framework to current examples from the literature and conclude that our method provides quantitative design principles for toggle switch design that match current experimental insights, identifying parameter thresholds where systems transition from frequent stochastic switching (hours) to stable operation (years to decades) and demonstrate upper bound calculations for false positive/negative rates in population-level biosensor dynamics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cravo, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fuegger, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nowak, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.21.683707</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Quasi-Stationary Distribution Bound for Fault Analysis in Gene Regulatory Networks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.21.683746v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
YAP1 defines an emergent, plastic population of relapsed small cell lung cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.21.683746v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive neuroendocrine malignancy characterized by rapid onset of chemoresistance and poor clinical outcomes. Transcriptional heterogeneity among treatment-naive SCLC tumors underlies four transcriptional subtypes, each with distinct clinical vulnerabilities. Though previously hypothesized to delineate a distinct subtype, expression of YAP1 is largely absent from treatment-naive, pure SCLC. To characterize relapsed SCLC, circulating tumor DNA, circulating tumor cells, and core needle biopsies from SCLC patients and preclinical models following resistance to standard-of-care therapies were analyzed. In contrast to treatment-naive SCLC, these analyses reveal an emergent YAP1-positive cell population that coincides with treatment resistance. These YAP1-positive cells exhibit characteristics of drug tolerant persister cells, including senescence, stemness, and plasticity, as YAP1 positive cells largely abandon features characteristic of SCLC to adopt those of large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC). As a result of this SCLC-like to LCNEC-like evolution, YAP1-positive cells lack several clinically relevant SCLC surface targets (i.e., DLL3, SEZ6), but are enriched for others (i.e., B7-H3, TROP2). We propose a model where YAP1 expressing cells emerge with SCLC treatment resistance and characterize a tenacious subpopulation capable of diverging from the treatment naive lineage and adopting features to evade therapeutic response.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stewart, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramkumar, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xi, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Halliday, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Serrano, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Groves, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heeke, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tanimoto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaiser, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bose, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Da Rocha, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Karacosta, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quaranta, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Solis Soto, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heymach, J. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Byers, L. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gay, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.21.683746</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[YAP1 defines an emergent, plastic population of relapsed small cell lung cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.21.683757v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Exploring the functions of JAKMIP1 in neuronal IL-6/STAT3 signaling and its relevance to chromosome 15q-duplication syndrome 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.21.683757v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Growing evidence supports neuroinflammation as a risk factor for neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Interleukin 6 (IL-6), a classical pro-inflammatory cytokine, has been associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-related phenotypes. To better understand molecular factors that modify neuronal cytokine responses in ASD, we investigated potential roles for JAKMIP1, a gene linked to chromosome 15q-duplication syndrome (Dup15q; a form of syndromic ASD), in regulating IL-6/STAT3 signaling. We observe that JAKMIP1 deficiency impairs IL-6/STAT3 signaling and IL-6-induced neuritogenesis in SH-SY5Y cells; and discover that JAKMIP1 may regulate STAT3 expression via its C-terminus, which exhibits nucleoplasmic localization. Additionally, we find that IL-6/STAT3 signaling is altered in Dup15q hiPSCs-derived cortical neurons, which display heightened responsiveness to IL-6; though it is unclear whether and how JAKMIP1 contributes to this. Overall, our findings identify JAKMIP1 as a modulator of neuronal IL-6/STAT3 signaling and support that ASD-linked genetic variants can alter the inflammatory landscape of ASD.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Martin, J. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Martin, E.-R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Takamura, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Harlow, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bamford, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morgan, N. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Inaba-Inoue, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mill, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srivastava, D. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawe, H. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chilton, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Russell, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oguro-Ando, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.21.683757</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Exploring the functions of JAKMIP1 in neuronal IL-6/STAT3 signaling and its relevance to chromosome 15q-duplication syndrome]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.23.683775v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Contextual Affects of Facial Expression 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.23.683775v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Affect recognition and communication are critical for everyday social interaction. Traditional emotion research has often assumed that facial expressions reliably reflect internal emotional states and conform to a set of universal expressions. However, emerging evidence suggests that facial expressions are highly individualized and influenced by context. To investigate these factors, we used genetic algorithms to enable participants to generate personalized facial expressions that best matched their subjective interpretation of affect within written contextual scenarios. 12 participants read standardized scenarios drawn from Howard Schatzs Actors Acting, which had been independently rated (0-4) across 13 primary emotions (Amusement, Anger, Awe, Contempt, Disgust, Embarrassment, Fear, Happiness, Interest, Pride, Sadness, Shame, Surprise). Each primary emotion was paired with all 12 secondary emotions that were either maximized (Condition 1) or minimized (Condition 2). Participants completed 26 such randomly interleaved trials, followed by the last condition (Condition 3) in which they selected faces corresponding directly to each of the 13 emotion words. Faces were generated within the 199-dimensional coefficient space of the Basel Face Database, with a genetic algorithm presenting 12 unique faces across 6 generations per scenario. Faces selected by participants as matching a given scenario were semi-randomly combined to generate 6 offspring per generation, with the remaining 6 faces created randomly to maintain genetic diversity. A 4-way ANOVA (factors: affect, context, generation, participant) on the cosine distances among faces revealed a significant main effect of affect (p =.0061) and a significant interaction between affect and context (p =.0003). These results indicate that distinct facial structures are associated with different emotions, but the representation of a given emotion is context-dependent. This work offers a novel approach to visualizing individual differences in emotion perception and has implications for advancing personalized tools in affective science, including clinical assessment and emotion recognition systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cui, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.23.683775</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Contextual Affects of Facial Expression]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.23.683781v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Affects of Central Vision Loss on Emotion Perception 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.23.683781v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Central Vision Loss (CVL) is prevalent in several eye diseases, including the leading cause of vision, age-related macular degeneration. CVL impacts many aspects of everyday living including subjective reports of deficits in facial expression perception. We quantify the perception of facial affect with a paradigm in which participants created individualized representations of facial expressions using a generative face model and genetic algorithms. 8 patients with CVL ([&ge;]1.3logMAR in better eye) and 8 normally-sighted young controls selected computer-generated faces that manifest each of 13 primary affects (Amusement, Anger, Awe, Contempt, Disgust, Embarrassment, Fear, Happiness, Interest, Pride, Sadness, Shame, and Surprise). An additional group of 8 age-matched normally-sighted controls matched the first four affects. For each affect, 6 generations of 12 faces were generated from the Basel Face database, in which 199 parameters modulate the structure of each face. After the 1st generation, 6 faces were created by combinations of the parameters of faces selected in the previous generation. The remaining r 6 faces were random to introduce genetic variability. A pilot study showed that subjects were most sensitive to changes in the first 20 face parameters, so the analysis was restricted to these. A 2-way ANOVA for the 20 mean coefficients values were compared between the patients and controls. There was a significant (P <.05) main effect for Amusement, Anger, Awe, Disgust, Fear, Interest, and Surprise and a significant (P <.05) interaction for all affects. Overall, coefficient values were closer to 0 for the CVL group, indicating that less extreme face expressions were selected. However, there was no significant difference between groups in the total number of faces selected for each affect besides Fear. This suggests that the tendency towards more neutral faces in CVL patients was not simply a consequence of low sensitivity to affect expression, additionally demonstrating that neither group has a positivity or negativity bias for affective stimuli. These data suggest that CVL patients have significantly different perceptions of facial expressions than age-matched controls. CVL patients have a tendency to choose more neutral looking faces to represent a given affect, whereas the control group chose more extreme, caricatured faces. Elucidating individual differences in emotion representation and recognition has implications for populations including neurotypical, visually impaired, and neurodivergent people. This methodology may be a novel tool for quantifying visual function outcomes, and the efficacy of future patient therapies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cui, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bex, P. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.23.683781</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Affects of Central Vision Loss on Emotion Perception]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.26.684677v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Are mitochondrial DNA mutations under purifying selection in somatic tissues? 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.26.684677v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The extent to which somatic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations are subject to selection is a fundamental question relevant to development, mitochondrial disease, cancer, and aging. Recently a study from the Sudmant laboratory that used an advanced, high fidelity mutational analysis reported that somatic mutations in protein-coding genes exhibit signatures of negative selection. This report came as surprise as several other studies including those that used same technology reported either lack of selection or positive (destructive) selection on somatic mutations. We hypothesized that these discrepancies may stem, in part, from the inclusion of germline mutations in addition to somatic ones, which could bias selection analyses due to the high synonymity of the latter. To test this, we reanalyzed the Sudmant dataset by separating mutations into germline (defined as shared between related animals) and somatic (not shared between tissues of an animal). We then employed a cumulative curve approach to assess selection without bias. Our analysis reveals that, indeed, an apparent purifying selection signal is driven by an admixture of synonymous germline mutations and disappears upon their removal. The remaining somatic mutations for most part show overall dynamics consistent with neutral drift. However, mutations at higher mutant fractions show positive selection trend, most compatible with a low proportion of mutations experiencing positive selection. While we do not exclude rare or context-specific selection events, our results argue against pervasive somatic selection and highlight the importance of rigorous stratification when interpreting mtDNA mutational patterns.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandell, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-10-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.10.26.684677</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Are mitochondrial DNA mutations under purifying selection in somatic tissues?]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-10-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.01.686061v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Phosphorylation of a conserved intrinsically disordered region is necessary for activation of a bacterial Hanks-type Ser/Thr kinase signaling pathway 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.01.686061v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) are found throughout all domains of life, yet their contribution to bacterial signaling has remained unclear. Here we show that phosphorylation of a conserved juxtamembrane IDR is necessary for activation of the bacterial Hanks-type Ser/Thr kinase-phosphatase PrkC/PrpC signaling pathway in Bacillus subtilis. Phosphoablative mutation of a conserved IDR phosphosite has strong effect on kinase-activity-dependent phenotypes, including intrinsic {beta}-lactam resistance and stationary phase survival. Using a synthetic quantitative reporter for kinase activity, mutational analysis, and mathematical modeling, we show that phosphorylation of the IDR promotes trans autoactivation of the kinase, and that this modification is essential for amplifying kinase activity in response to a signal. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrates that this IDR and associated putative phosphosites proximal to the kinase domain are highly conserved across prokaryotic species that diverged at the last universal common ancestor. Together these findings suggest that kinase-domain proximal IDR phosphorylation has a critical role in bacterial Ser/Thr signaling, with direct implications for understanding antibiotic resistance mechanisms and developing kinase-targeting antimicrobials.

Author SummaryBacteria use protein kinases to sense and respond to their environment. Despite decades of research, the activation process of an evolutionarily ancient group of bacterial Ser/Thr kinases that serve as master regulators of responses to antibiotics remains poorly understood. In this work we show that phosphorylation of an unstructured protein region, an intrinsically disordered region (IDR), is required for activating the prototypical Ser/Thr bacterial kinase in Bacillus subtilis. Without this phosphorylation, bacteria are more sensitive to {beta}-lactam antibiotics and show severe survival defects in stationary phase. Using genetic analysis and mathematical modeling, we show that IDR phosphorylation allows kinases to activate each other, generating signal amplification. This kinase IDR is conserved across bacteria and archaea that diverged billions of years ago, suggesting it arose early in evolution. Because closely related kinases in clinically important pathogens share these features, our findings suggest this IDR as a target for developing antimicrobials that could disrupt bacterial responses to antibiotic treatment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Grunfeld, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Libby, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.01.686061</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Phosphorylation of a conserved intrinsically disordered region is necessary for activation of a bacterial Hanks-type Ser/Thr kinase signaling pathway]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.686291v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Measuring Perfusion Pressure and Flow Resistance in a Microfluidic Device Using an External Optical System 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.686291v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The pathology of human diseases are now investigated using microphysiological systems (MPS) supporting vascular structures. Efforts to increase physiological relevance of these platforms have centered on the incorporation of organ-specific cellular and non-cellular constituents. However, tissue-specific cellular constituents must experience appropriate physical forces to faithfully replicate physiological function. Quantification of physical forces in MPS has received little attention. The goal of this study was to establish a simple and robust system capable of interfacing with existing pumps to quantitatively characterize the flow delivered to a MPS. The system assessed both the fluid pressure driving flow through a microphysiological platform and the resistance to flow of glass capillary tubes or a model vascular network. The system showed excellent qualitative and quantitative agreement with resistance values measured by a hydrostatic approach and predicted for laminar flow through a smooth capillary tube. Importantly, the system is optically-based without sensors contacting the circulating fluid making it ideally-suited for long-term biological studies where sterility is paramount. Benchmarking experiments were supplemented with measurements of driving pressure and flow resistance from vascular structures within a MPS in a humidified incubator. Vascular resistance measurements were consistent with published results obtained from similar microvascular networks.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Coughlin, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Floryan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Offeddu, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coughlin, M. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.03.686291</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Measuring Perfusion Pressure and Flow Resistance in a Microfluidic Device Using an External Optical System]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.05.686629v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Circadian rhythms in sexual behavior and their influence on reproductive outcomes in mice 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.05.686629v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Circadian clocks coordinate mammalian reproductive physiology, and circadian misalignment (resulting from shift work, jet lag, etc.) is known to impair fertility. Despite the well-established links between clock function and reproductive success, it remains unclear whether male and female mice maintained under standard ad libitum feeding conditions exhibit circadian rhythms in the propensity for sexual behavior, and to what degree such timing influences reproductive outcomes. Using standardized mating paradigms in C57BL/6J mice, we identified a circadian rhythm in sexual behavior in both sexes, with peak sexual activity most often occurring at circadian time (CT) 13-16 and a trough at CT4-7. To test the functional significance of these rhythms, we conducted 1-hour mating trials across four cohorts of C57BL/6J mice with pairs of mice having either aligned (e.g. male CT16 peak and female CT16 peak) or misaligned (e.g. male CT16 peak and female CT4 nadir) sexual behavior phases and monitored mating outcomes via ultrasound. While pregnancies were almost as frequent across all four cohorts, the numbers of live offspring were significantly more frequent when both the male and female mated at their peak phases than when both mice mated at their troughs. Notably, mating specifically during the males behavioral peak increased the likelihood of successful delivery of pups, suggesting that male circadian phase is a key determinant of miscarriage vs successful birth. These findings establish a circadian rhythm in the propensity for sexual behavior under standard feeding and housing conditions and indicate that mating time--particularly relative to the males circadian peak--can influence reproductive success. This insight provides a foundation for translational studies that explore whether intercourse timed to the circadian rhythms of the couple might help to increase fertility chances.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Aten, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blake, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keister, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Veith, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fishbein, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramirez-Plascencia, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thompson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howe, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pereira, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sela, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Navarro, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saper, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.05.686629</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Circadian rhythms in sexual behavior and their influence on reproductive outcomes in mice]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.05.686816v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evaluating Field Trial Designs for Genetically Modified Mosquito Interventions: An In-Silico Simulation Approach 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.05.686816v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mosquito control strategies based on the mass release of modified males, such as genetically modified mosquitoes (GMMs), aim to suppress wild populations by impairing reproduction. Evaluating these interventions requires resource-intensive field trials, but a lack of standardized implementation practices, particularly regarding release ratios of modified males to wild female mosquitoes and trial timing, has led to variable outcomes. This studys objective is to propose a modeling tool for the "in-silico" simulation of trial designs before field implementation. To this aim, we developed an agent-based model of mosquito population dynamics. As a case study, we calibrated the model using 2019-2023 Aedes aegypti surveillance data from Miami-Dade County, Florida, and compared two GMM trial designs as illustrative examples. Our results show that depending on the implementation choices (e.g., trial start date and duration, release ratio), trials yield highly variable outcomes. For example, changing the start date while fixing all other implementation details can lead to effectiveness between 50% and 90%. Our findings suggest that "in-silico" simulation is a valuable tool for improving trial protocol design, allowing stakeholders to test strategies and reduce outcome uncertainty before committing to a fieldwork experiment.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Chitturi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ventura, P. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kummer, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vasquez, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>SeRine, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hill, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manica, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Poletti, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beier, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ejima, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johansson, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Merler, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mutebi, J.-P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Litvinova, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilke, A. B. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ajelli, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.05.686816</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evaluating Field Trial Designs for Genetically Modified Mosquito Interventions: An In-Silico Simulation Approach]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.06.687088v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
High dynamic range shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging of mice with an InGaAs camera 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.06.687088v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
SignificanceWhile shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging provides superior tissue penetration and reduced autofluorescence for preclinical applications, quantitative fluorescence analysis is hindered by the limited dynamic range of InGaAs cameras, forcing a focus on either bright or dim anatomical features.

AimWe develop a high dynamic range (HDR) imaging method specifically adapted for the high-noise characteristics of InGaAs detectors to enable quantitative fluorescence imaging across wide intensity ranges. We demonstrate that one-time camera calibration based on a series of images encompassing the range of radiance intensities enables all subsequent image processing.

ApproachWe modified classical HDR algorithms with exposure-time-dependent dark current subtraction, preprocessing to exclude saturated and noisy pixels before camera response function recovery, and dynamic weighting range adjustment to account for shrinking intensity ranges at longer exposures. HDR image processing effects on preclinical imaging outcomes were analyzed using indocyanine green and SWIR-emitting PbS/CdS quantum dots in mouse models.

ResultsHDR imaging achieved a 22 dB improvement in dynamic range over single exposures, enabling simultaneous quantification across more than three orders of magnitude of fluorophore concentration. In vivo studies showed improvements in contrast-to-noise ratios across all anatomical features, with improvements in vascular contrast while maintaining quantitative accuracy. After one-time camera calibrations, this approach enables rapid processing of subsequent datasets.

ConclusionsThis software-based HDR SWIR imaging approach eliminates exposure parameter optimization and enables comprehensive biodistribution analysis across all anatomical structures from a single acquisition sequence, significantly streamlining preclinical imaging workflows while preserving quantitative accuracy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Patel, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhong, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moffett, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sun, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dennis, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.06.687088</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[High dynamic range shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging of mice with an InGaAs camera]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.12.688017v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dynamic interaction between stress hormones and neutrophils promotes neutrophil extracellular trap formation with behavioral consequences 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.12.688017v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent studies have highlighted the crosstalk between neuroendocrine responses and the immune system but the mechanisms underlying this cooperation are still not well understood. The stress response is associated with peripheral inflammation suggesting that stress hormones including glucocorticoids and catecholamines could modulate the function of innate immune cells like neutrophils. Likewise, inflammatory mediators produced by immune cells are known to contribute to psychiatric diseases like major depressive disorder. Here we investigated the dynamic relationship between stress hormones and neutrophils and their contribution to mood disorders. We found that chronic restraint stress leads to plasma elevation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) and increased NET formation in mice. Interestingly, the stress hormones, cortisol and epinephrine induce NET formation in human neutrophils ex vivo. Activation of neutrophils to form NETs leads to their increased expression of adrenergic and glucocorticoid receptors and neutrophil production of both cortisol and epinephrine indicating an autocrine/paracrine mechanism for the regulation of neutrophil inflammatory response by stress hormones. Strikingly, administration of NET components to mice induces depressive-like behavior. Moreover, activation of the glucocorticoid receptor in human volunteers leads to increase in gene expression of NET proteins. Furthermore, patients with major depressive disorder show gene upregulation of NET proteins. Our data highlights the bi-directional relationship between neuroendocrine processes and neutrophils that contribute to stress-induced increase in inflammation and the role of neutrophil inflammatory responses in propagation of behavioral changes following stress.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Thangamani, K. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Prece, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carter, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Douglas, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brengel, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferris, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okeke, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.12.688017</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dynamic interaction between stress hormones and neutrophils promotes neutrophil extracellular trap formation with behavioral consequences]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.12.688050v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The neuroscience of highly stable, positive, and refined states of consciousness during jhana-type advanced concentration absorption meditation (ACAM-J) 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.12.688050v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Humans can experience a rich array of conscious experience, including highly stable, positive, and refined states of non-ordinary perception that can be elicited through advanced meditation. Here, we present the first group-level, ultra-high-field (7T) fMRI study of jhana advanced concentration absorption meditation (ACAM-J). We combined local (regional homogeneity), mesoscale (connectivity gradients), and global (geometric eigenmodes) human brain mapping with diverse and detailed phenomenology, meditative traits, behaviorally assessed cognitive functions, and extensive publicly available psychobehavioral affinity maps. Across eight successive states of ACAM-J, we observed reproducible neural trajectories marked by anterior-to-posterior reorganization, flattening of cortical hierarchies, nonlinear reconfiguration of global harmonics, and tight coupling between brain metrics and equanimity, attentional stability, and behavior. Neurosynth decoding further associate ACAM-J with reduced suffering-related processes and more with attentional monitoring. These findings suggest ACAM-J is a distinct, structured mode of awareness that persists despite radically reduced narrative thought and sensory content. Our findings also inform boundary conditions for current models of consciousness. More broadly, this research indicates that advanced meditation is a powerful framework for understanding psychological transformation, and for potential new opportunities for supporting human well-being and flourishing.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yang, W. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Potash, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mackin, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beslic, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bianciardi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sprby, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sacchet, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.12.688050</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The neuroscience of highly stable, positive, and refined states of consciousness during jhana-type advanced concentration absorption meditation (ACAM-J)]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.13.687536v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
DNA adduct and mutational profiles reveal a threshold of cellular defenses against N-nitrosodimethylamine administered to mice in drinking water 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.13.687536v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) is classified as an animal and probable human carcinogen. Murine liver DNA adducts, mutations, MGMT and CYP2E1 were evaluated following chronic administration of NDMA in drinking water. In a dose-escalation study, 7-methylguanine (m7G) increased linearly with NDMA dose. O6-Methylguanine (m6G) remained near background for NDMA doses up to [~]1 ppm, beyond which its level, and corresponding mutations, rose steeply. An extended study was done with 5 ppm NDMA, in which adducts were measured at 3 weeks and mutations at 10 weeks. While the level of CYP2E1 was unchanged, MGMT gene transcription was induced in females at 10 weeks. Homologous recombination-mediated chromosomal rearrangements did not increase over background. Point mutations, however, were elevated substantially in both sexes. Mutational analysis over 96 trinucleotide contexts revealed predominantly GC[-&gt;]AT mutations in 5-purine-G-3 contexts in a pattern matching human COSMIC cancer mutational signature SBS11, with secondary features resembling SBS119 (AT[-&gt;]GC). Taken together, the data implicate m6G as the dominant mutagenic adduct under chronic dosing with NDMA. Furthermore, the genomic m6G level was identified at which its dedicated repair protein, MGMT, became saturated. The coordinated application of DNA adduct, mutational and biochemical analyses provides a new approach for early detection and cancer management.

Graphical abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=103 SRC="FIGDIR/small/687536v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e6ae72org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1c6fad6org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@7e3716org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@52a87b_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG C_FIG
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gubina, N. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Volk, L. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dormitzer, A. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Michelsen, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pribyl, L. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corrigan, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dalvie, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Armijo, A. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Norales, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bugher, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schonvisky, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plata, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engelward, B. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Croy, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Essigmann, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fedeles, B. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.13.687536</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[DNA adduct and mutational profiles reveal a threshold of cellular defenses against N-nitrosodimethylamine administered to mice in drinking water]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.14.688522v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Wormtrails: a python package for viewing C. elegans movement 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.14.688522v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Wormtrails is a python package designed to create images and videos depicting the motion of C. elegans on solid media. Darkfield or brightfield images may be converted into stills or movies, with time encoded by color. This package was primarily designed to be used for visualizing locomotion during chemotaxis, but it may be used to visualize locomotory patterns in a wide array of behavioral assays.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ashih, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apfeld, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.14.688522</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Wormtrails: a python package for viewing C. elegans movement]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.19.689216v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Unconventional linkers facilitate potent stabilized coronavirus stem antibody responses following nanoparticle vaccination 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.19.689216v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Vaccine technologies that protect against a range of related pathogens within viral families, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), influenza, and coronaviruses (CoVs) represent the future of viral vaccine development. Towards developing broad-spectrum CoV and influenza vaccines, we and others previously designed and evaluated CoV and influenza stem antigens; but these elicited relatively weak and sub-neutralizing antibody (Ab) responses. Multivalent antigen display on nanoparticles (NPs) is an established strategy to enhance and shape immunogenicity. However, one facet of NP vaccines has been largely overlooked: the indispensable linker segment between the antigen and NP core. Here, we introduce de novo-designed rigid (L2) and rarely used long flexible (L6) linkers to optimally display antigens on NPs, target occluded epitopes, and enhance cross-reactive Ab responses, using prefusion-stabilized Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) spike (S-2P) and stem (SS) antigens as prototype antigens. Antigenic characterization of L2-NPs confirmed enhanced Ab binding and exposure of cross-reactive epitopes compared with L6-NPs and soluble antigens. Immunization with SS-L2-NPs elicited broader, more potent cross-reactive Ab responses across the seven human-infecting CoVs and pandemic threat WIV1-CoV, whereas SS-L6-NPs induced stronger neutralizing Ab responses against MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and WIV1-CoV. Ab competition and systems serology analyses revealed that SS-L2-NPs elicit robust Fc-mediated effector functions. By improving CoV-targeting Ab functionality, these linker approaches have the potential to confer broad-spectrum CoV protection and represent a promising strategy against hypervariable influenza and HIV viruses - as well as other broad viral families with pandemic potential.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Dzuvor, C. K. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moak, S. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McManus, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dzordzorme, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Evanson, L. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thomas, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adeyemi, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Foley, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Limaye, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McNamara, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corbett-Helaire, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.19.689216</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Unconventional linkers facilitate potent stabilized coronavirus stem antibody responses following nanoparticle vaccination]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690166v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Reductive death is averted by an ancient metabolic switch. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690166v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Biguanides, including metformin, the worlds most prescribed oral hypoglycemic, extend health-span and lifespan in vertebrates and invertebrates. Given the widespread use and apparent safety of metformin, it is assumed that its effects are not associated with toxicity, except when in marked excess. Here we determine that accumulation of damaging reducing equivalents is an unanticipated toxicity associated with biguanides, the defense against which requires post-transcriptional protection of de novo fatty acid biosynthesis. We demonstrate that biguanide treatment during impaired fatty acid biosynthesis drives NADPH toxicity, leading to catastrophic elevation of NADH/GSH reducing equivalents and accelerated death across metazoans. Multiple NADPH-generating interventions require fatty acid biosynthesis to prevent markedly shortened survival, indicating that this defense mechanism is broadly leveraged. We propose that fatty acid biosynthesis is a tunable rheostat which can minimize biguanide-induced reductive stress whilst maximizing its pro-longevity outcomes and serve as an exploitable vulnerability in reductive stress sensitive cancers.

HIGHLIGHTSO_LIBiguanides inhibit cytosolic mRNA translation to extend lifespan in C. elegans.
C_LIO_LIFatty acid synthesis is translationally protected by eIF3 complex subunits.
C_LIO_LIpod-2/fasn-1 inactivation amplifies biguanide-induced reductive stress and death.
C_LIO_LINADPH-generating insults require fatty acid synthesis to buffer reductive stress.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ahsan, F. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rotti, J. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yerevanian, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Emans, S. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stuhr, N. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aceves-Salvador, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baker, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pouli, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skinner, O. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blower, M. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soukas, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.24.690166</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Reductive death is averted by an ancient metabolic switch.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.27.691022v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Paradoxical gene regulation explained by competition for genomic sites 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.27.691022v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Understanding how opposing regulatory factors shape gene expression is essential for interpreting complex biological systems. A motivating observation, drawn from cancer epigenetics, is that removing an activating factor can sometimes lead to higher, not lower, expression of a gene that is also subject to repression. This counterintuitive behavior suggests that competition between activators and repressors for limited genomic binding sites may produce unexpected transcriptional outcomes. Prior theoretical work proposed this mechanism, but it has been difficult to test directly in natural systems, where layers of chromatin regulation obscure causal relationships. This paper introduces a fully synthetic, tunable genetic platform in a prokaryotic model system that isolates this competition mechanism in a clean and interpretable setting. The engineered construct contains a target gene with binding sites for both an activator and a repressor, together with a separate decoy region that carries overlapping binding sites for the same regulators. Activator and repressor functions are implemented using CRISPRa and CRISPRi, which permit independent control of regulator expression levels and binding affinities. Using this minimal system, the paper shows that increasing activator expression can reduce expression of the target gene when both regulators are present, consistent with the prediction that additional activator molecules displace the repressor from decoy sites and allow it to more effectively repress the target. By demonstrating how competition alone can invert expected regulatory responses, this synthetic framework provides a validated model for understanding similar paradoxical behaviors in natural regulatory networks and establishes a foundation for future studies in more complex mammalian contexts.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Jatkar, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aravind, K. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Del Vecchio, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.27.691022</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Paradoxical gene regulation explained by competition for genomic sites]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.28.691216v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Optimization of heuristic logic synthesis by iteratively reducing circuit substructures using a database of optimal implementations 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.28.691216v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Minimal synthesis of Boolean functions is an NP-hard problem, and heuristic approaches typically give suboptimal circuits. However, in the emergent field of synthetic biology, genetic logic designs that use even a single additional Boolean gate can render a circuit unimplementable in a cell. This has led to a renewed interest in the field of optimal multilevel Boolean synthesis. For small numbers (1-4) of inputs, an exhaustive search is possible, but this is impractical for large circuits. In this work, we demonstrate that even though it is challenging to build a database of optimal implementations for anything larger than 4-input Boolean functions, a database of 4-input optimal implementations can be used to greatly reduce the number of logical gates required in larger heuristic logic synthesis implementations. The proposed algorithm combines the heuristic results with an optimal implementation database and yields average improvements in fractional gate-count reduction relative to ABC of 5.16% for 5-input circuits and 4.54% for 6-input circuits on outputs provided by the logic synthesis tool ABC. In addition to the gains in the efficiency of the implemented circuits, this work also attests to the importance and practicality of the field of optimal synthesis, even if it cannot directly provide results for larger circuits. The focus of this work is on circuits made exclusively of 2-input NOR gates but the presented results are readily applicable to 2-input NAND circuits as well as (2-input) AND/NOT circuits. The framework proposed here is likely to be adaptable to other types of circuits. Moreover, a small computational pipeline is provided for integration with synthetic biology tools such as Cello. An implementation of the described algorithm, HLM (Hybrid Logic Minimizer), is available at https://github.com/sontaglab/HLM/.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tran, A. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jatkar, D. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ali Al-Radhawi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ernst, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sontag, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-11-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.1101/2025.11.28.691216</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Optimization of heuristic logic synthesis by iteratively reducing circuit substructures using a database of optimal implementations]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-11-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.01.690857v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ancient DNA from shells reveals delayed genomic erosion and rapid immune adaptation in the critically endangered black abalone 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.01.690857v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Predicting the genetic consequences of population decline is a major problem in conservation genomics. Time lags following demographic bottlenecks can delay genomic erosion and make it difficult to determine a populations current and future risk, especially when pre-bottleneck genomic baselines are unavailable. Black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii) suffered a severe disease bottleneck in the 1980s, resulting in an estimated 99% population decline. However, recent work found surprisingly high genetic diversity and little population structure in current black abalone populations, raising questions of whether genomic erosion has been delayed. To investigate this, we applied ancient DNA methods to pre-bottleneck abalone shells, generating 59 whole genomes including one 34-fold coverage genome from a 1,500-year-old specimen. These data show that heterozygosity, runs of homozygosity, genetic load and population structure remained stable up to and following the bottleneck. Simulations reveal that this stability is consistent with even severe bottleneck scenarios because too few generations have lapsed since the decline. Projections suggest that future genomic erosion may be avoided even in limited recovery scenarios. Following the bottleneck we observe widespread balancing selection at genes with immune function, along with parallel increases of two inversions on separate chromosomes that are in linkage disequilibrium, where the disease bottleneck was most severe. Altogether, these findings explain why genomic change has thus far been limited, outline recovery scenarios that minimize genomic erosion, and identify loci likely that may harbor adaptive variation key to the success of future black abalone populations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wooldridge, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kapp, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ford, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seligmann, W. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Conwell, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tzadikario, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oppenheimer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anderson, Z. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Le Moan, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abadia-Cardoso, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raimondi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shapiro, B. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.01.690857</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ancient DNA from shells reveals delayed genomic erosion and rapid immune adaptation in the critically endangered black abalone]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.03.692129v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Revealing Interactions between Microbes, Metabolites, and Dietary Compounds using Genome-scale Analysis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.03.692129v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundThe role of gut microbiome in predicting diet response and developing personalized dietary recommendations has been increasingly recognized. Yet, we still lack comprehensive, genome-based insights into which gut microbes metabolize specific dietary compounds.

ResultsHere, we leveraged the metabolic networks constructed from well-annotated microbial genomes to characterize the potential interactions between microbes and metabolites, specifically emphasizing the interactions between microbes and dietary compounds. We revealed a substantial, approximately four-fold variation in both the number of metabolites and dietary compounds in the microbial genome-scale metabolic networks across different genera, whereas species within the same genus showed a high metabolic similarity (mean coefficient of variation in microbial network degree CV = 0.023 for metabolites and 0.015 for dietary compounds). We found that the number of species that can utilize a metabolite drastically varies, ranging from 1 to 818 species, with some metabolites being used by a wide range of species (211 out of 1390 metabolites used by more than 95% of species) and others only by a few species (435 metabolites used by less than 5% of species). Leveraging a longitudinal microbiome study, we observed that microbial taxa with similar metabolic capacity tend to have positively correlated abundances, and the gut microbiomes capacity to process dietary compounds is functionally stable. Finally, we propose a network-based method to identify the dietary compounds that are specific to no more than 10 microbial species, offering a new strategy for combining a dietary compound and its linked microbial species to design synbiotics.

ConclusionsOur results quantitatively reveal large-scale variation and redundancy in gut microbial metabolism and identify dietary compounds linked to only a few microbial species. These findings improve understanding of microbe-metabolite interactions and provide a foundation for the rational design of microbiome-based interventions for healthy benefits.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gyori, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weiss, S. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Menichetti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.03.692129</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Revealing Interactions between Microbes, Metabolites, and Dietary Compounds using Genome-scale Analysis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.03.692149v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Microbiome-behavior coupling shapes infant adaptation to early maternal unpredictability 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.03.692149v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We asked whether infant microbiome composition, together with infants behavioral responses to early maternal unpredictability, can offer novel mechanistic insights into behavioral phenotypic variation in human development. Maternal unpredictability was computed as the entropy rate of transitions among maternal sensory signals during naturalistic mother-infant interaction (n=256 dyads; 2-6 months). Infant visual orienting behavior (VOB) was indexed by infants simultaneous gaze shifts to and from the mother. Higher maternal unpredictability predicted more frequent VOB shifts, indicating a mature-for-age profile, and longitudinally forecast poorer inhibitory control at 19-28 months. A subgroup of infants with high maternal unpredictability and high VOB had inhibitory control outcomes closer to those of infants who experienced low maternal unpredictability, suggesting VOB strategy might buffer against the effects of high maternal unpredictability. In participants with metagenomic data (n=93), VOB was associated with taxonomic and functional gut microbial profiles along a Bifidobacterium breve to Bifidobacterium longum axis. Neuroactive gene-set enrichment analysis linked VOB to increase in tryptophan synthesis and glutamate synthesis genes. In contrast, maternal unpredictability showed depletions of GABA and tryptophan synthesis in the unique-effects model and, when VOB and the maternal unpredictability by VOB term were included, enrichment of acetate synthesis and quinolinic acid degradation. Notably, the maternal unpredictability by VOB interactions for tryptophan and glutamate were negative, indicating that the VOB-pathway coupling attenuates as unpredictability increases. Together, these findings support a framework in which maternal unpredictability is the environmental challenge, infant VOB expresses the behavioral strategy, and microbial metabolism modulates whether that strategy is biochemically feasible.

TeaserInfant gut microbiome is linked to infant behavioral responses to maternal unpredictability, which in turn impacts how they learn to control their actions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Amso, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bottino, G. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Forest, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonham, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zieff, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miles, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herr, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Espinoza-Heredia, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>D'Amato, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ren, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstone, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mbale, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alexander, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jones, D. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Williams, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fifer, W. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabard-Durnam, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klepac-Ceraj, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donald, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.03.692149</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Microbiome-behavior coupling shapes infant adaptation to early maternal unpredictability]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.08.693064v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Building dynamical models of multi-step state transitions from single cell gene expression trajectories 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.08.693064v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Multi-step cell state transitions often occur in biological processes, such as cell differentiation and disease progression, yet the regulatory mechanisms governing these transitions remain unclear. Here, we introduce NetDes, a computational method that integrates top-down and bottom-up systems biology to infer core transcription factor regulatory networks and build ODE-based dynamical models from single-cell gene expression trajectories. We demonstrate that NetDes predicts regulatory interactions and reproduces gene expression dynamics through benchmarking using in-silico time trajectories with decoys, tests on gene circuit simulations of embryonic phenotypic switching, and application to time-series scRNA-seq data from human iPSC differentiation. Compared to existing approaches, NetDes has the advantage of capturing sequential state transitions within a single dynamical model. Network simulations and coarse-graining further elucidate the regulatory roles of genes and their combinations in driving these transitions. Our approach provides a generalizable framework for mechanistic modeling of gene regulation in complex cell state transitions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>You, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caranica, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.08.693064</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Building dynamical models of multi-step state transitions from single cell gene expression trajectories]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.09.693150v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Plasticity Associated with Adoption of Social Roles in Clown Anemonefish 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.09.693150v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
A central question in animal behavior is how individual phenotypes shape, and are shaped by, dominance hierarchies. Using clownfish (Amphiprion percula) as a model system, we investigated how individuals strategically modify their phenotype during hierarchy formation. We tested the overarching hypothesis that interactions among size- and age-matched rivals will lead to the emergence of social roles (dominant, subordinate, solitary), accompanied by divergence in four aspects of individual phenotypes: growth, feeding behavior, agonistic behaviors (aggression, submission), and gene expression. To test this, we created 30 replicates of juvenile clownfish, each comprising a size-matched pair housed together, and a solitary size-matched individual housed separately. Our results show that an individuals social context shapes its growth trajectory through coordinated changes in feeding behavior, agonistic behaviors, and gene expression. Individuals emerging as dominant within pairs grew twice as much compared to those emerging as subordinates, while subordinate and solitary individuals showed comparable growth. Initially, paired individuals consumed more food per capita than solitary individuals, but this difference declined as size hierarchies became established. Agonistic behaviors also decreased over time among paired individuals as size differences emerged. Transcriptomic analyses revealed upregulation of conserved vertebrate growth pathways and ossification related genes, and downregulation of satiety-associated genes, in dominant individuals compared to subordinates and solitaries. Here we link changes in gene expression with growth and feeding behavior regulation that underpin and reinforce social role differentiation during dominance hierarchy formation in clownfish. Our findings lay the foundation for a broader framework to explore the mechanisms underpinning strategic growth in social vertebrates.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Vizer, L. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Alvarado, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bove, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Herrera, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hughes, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Thompson, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bogdanowicz, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laudet, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davies, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buston, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.09.693150</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Plasticity Associated with Adoption of Social Roles in Clown Anemonefish]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.17.689083v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
UV induces common cutaneous amyloid-like melanosomal protein aggregates 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.17.689083v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Misfolding of aggregation-prone proteins underpins diseases known as proteinopathies. One of these proteins, alpha-synuclein, is a component of aggregates in neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinsons disease. The melanosomal protein PMEL, which forms physiologic amyloid scaffold structures on which melanin is organized in melanosomes, similarly ectopically accumulates in the dermis in many forms of cutaneous hyperpigmentation. Here, we demonstrate in a wide range of common clinical pigmentary disorders, as well as in primary melanocyte and mouse models examined by molecular, proteomic, and electron microscopic tools, that melanocytic alpha-synuclein is a prominent component of intracellular protein aggregates bound to similar proteins as in Parkinsons disease, as well as melanized extracellular protein deposits. Using the Real Time Quaking-Induced Conversion Assay (RT-QuIC), we demonstrate that UV induces misfolded melanosomal proteins to self-propagate, augmenting this pathology in prion-like fashion. CUT&RUN chromatin profiling and single-cell RNA-seq demonstrate that melanocytes utilize microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF)-regulated autophagy to counteract protein aggregation, identifying aggregate removal as a core function of tanning. In contrast to extracellular aggregation, impaired intracellular aggregate removal contributes to melanocyte senescence, which conversely exacerbates chronic hypopigmentation and photoaging-related discoloration. These findings identify melanosomal proteinopathy as a common contributor to melanocyte dysfunction and suggest aggregate-focused management approaches.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Theodosakis, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howland, P. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hejna, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ostrowski, S. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cohen-Neamie, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joseph, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ji, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greuel, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boozer, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Demian, M. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Asim, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nguyen, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mu, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seifert, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kaminiow, K. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fassini, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Germana, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaw, K. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, W. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hoang, M. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chandra, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hacohen, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ballabio, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bakshi, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Udeshi, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Horn, T. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ganesan, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Murphy, G. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carr, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hyman, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fisher, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.17.689083</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[UV induces common cutaneous amyloid-like melanosomal protein aggregates]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.17.695045v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Elemental Composition and Degradation Rate Impact the Biocompatibility of Copper Chalcogenide Nanocrystals 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.17.695045v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Copper chalcogenide nanocrystals (NCs) are promising candidates for biophotonic applications due to their tunable optical properties. Concrete methods to examine the relationship between their degradation and toxicity are necessary to enable development of nanoconstructs with reduced toxicity. This study compares the degradation and acute cytotoxicity of three compositions of micelle-coated copper chalcogenide NCs: the fluorescent semiconductor copper indium sulfide (CuInS2), and the plasmonic semiconductors copper sulfide (Cu2-xS) and chalcopyrite copper iron sulfide (CuFeS2). We developed a quantitative degradation assay to assess ion release from these ultra-small nanocrystals, revealing that while all three particles biodegrade, CuInS2 and CuFeS2 undergo rapid degradation in artificial lysosomal fluid, leading to a burst release of indium and iron ions. In cellular toxicity assays, CuInS2 exhibited significantly higher acute cytotoxicity than Cu2-xS and CuFeS2, primarily due to indium-induced necrosis. To mitigate this toxicity, an alternative surface-binding polymer coating was introduced, effectively reducing both the degradation rate and cytotoxicity of CuInS2. These findings highlight the influence of both nanocrystal composition and coating chemistry in moderating the acute cytotoxity of degradable nanocrystals, demonstrating that tuning of composition and degradation rate can be used to moderate nanoparticle toxicity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Zhong, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katsarakes, G. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nagarkar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dennis, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.17.695045</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Elemental Composition and Degradation Rate Impact the Biocompatibility of Copper Chalcogenide Nanocrystals]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.19.695573v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Low-temperature HILIC provides enhanced separations and stability for LC-MS-based metabolomics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.19.695573v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
AbstractLiquid chromatography-mass spectrometry is a potent and robust tool for studying metabolism. However, conventional workflows can suffer from poor peak shapes, limited pressure tolerance, co-elution of polar metabolites, and unstable retention times. Here, we describe the development of a more stable HILIC method for LC-MS metabolomics of human plasma and cell extracts, optimizing a zwitterionic HILIC (Z-HILIC) column for improved untargeted performance. We found that using high-pH ammonium bicarbonate with 90% acetonitrile in mobile phase B (ABC B) can greatly improve peak shapes of select metabolites when compared to 100% acetonitrile (ACN B), but at the cost of poor retention time stability. We therefore focused on optimizing chromatography for the ACN B method and observed that cooling the column to 5 {degrees}C substantially enhanced peak shape. This low-temperature Z-HILIC (LT-ZHILIC) method provides high-resolution separation of metabolites from both cellular extracts and human plasma, is stable over days, and generally outperformed a standard method using the widely described ZIC-pHILIC column. Application of the untargeted LT-ZHILIC method to characterize the metabolic consequences of glutamine and pyruvate deficiency in human cells revealed a striking change in nucleotide phosphates; a perturbation that was not observed in the ZIC-pHILIC analysis of the same samples likely due to inadequate elution profiles. In sum, the LT-ZHILIC workflow offers a robust platform to advance untargeted metabolomics by improving metabolite coverage, resolution, and retention time stability, making it a promising technique for providing novel insights into cellular metabolic rewiring and the human plasma metabolome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jastrab, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lisci, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bader, T. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jourdain, A. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skinner, O. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.19.695573</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Low-temperature HILIC provides enhanced separations and stability for LC-MS-based metabolomics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.20.695738v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Predicting interaction-specific protein-protein interaction perturbations by missense variants with MutPred-PPI 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.20.695738v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Disruption of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) is a major mechanism of a variants deleterious effect. Computational tools are needed to assess such variants at scale, yet existing predictors rarely consider loss of specific interactions, particularly when variants perturb binding interfaces without significantly affecting protein stability. To address this problem, we present MutPred-PPI, a graph attention network that predicts interaction-specific (edgetic) effects of missense variants by operating on AlphaFold 3-based protein complex contact graphs with protein language model embeddings imposed upon nodes. We systematically evaluated our model with stringent group cross-validation as well as benchmark data recently collected within the IGVF Consortium. MutPred-PPI outperformed all baseline methods across all evaluation criteria, achieving an AUC of 0.85 on seen proteins and 0.72 on previously unseen proteins in cross-validation, demonstrating strong generalizability despite scarce training data. To demonstrate biomedical relevance, we applied MutPred-PPI to variants from ClinVar, HGMD, COSMIC, gnomAD, and two de novo neurodevelopmental disorder-linked datasets. Disease-associated variants from Clin-Var and HGMD showed strong enrichment for both quasi-null and edgetic effects, whereas population variants from gnomAD increasingly preserved interactions with higher allele frequencies. Notably, we observed a strong edgetic disruption signature in highly recurrent cancer variants from both the full COSMIC dataset and a subset of variants from oncogenes. Recurrent tumor suppressor gene variants and autism spectrum disorder-associated variants exhibited moderate quasi-null enrichment, whilst neurodevelopmental disorder-linked variants showed a weak edgetic disruption signature. These results indicate distinct PPI perturbation mechanisms across disease types and show that MutPred-PPI captures functionally relevant molecular effects of pathogenic variants.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stewart, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laval, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coppin, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spirohn-Fitzgerald, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tixhon, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calderwood, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mort, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooper, D. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vidal, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.20.695738</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Predicting interaction-specific protein-protein interaction perturbations by missense variants with MutPred-PPI]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.23.696267v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Foundational Generative Model for Cross-platform Unified Enhancement of Spatial Transcriptomics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.23.696267v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Spatial transcriptomics (ST) platforms are limited by spatial resolution, sensitivity to low expression levels, alignment with tissue structures, and the balance across tissue complexity. Computational enhancement typically targets a single challenge, e.g., super-resolution using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) images or sensitivity enhancement with single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). However, most ignore the interdependence across challenges, yielding biologically inconsistent enhancement. Here we introduce FOCUS, a foundational generative model for unified ST enhancement, conditioned on H&E images, scRNA-seq references, and spatial co-expression priors. With large-scale pretrained encoders, FOCUS uses a modular design for multimodal integration and a cross-challenge coordination strategy to target co-occurring challenges, enabling joint optimization. FOCUS was trained and comprehensively benchmarked on >1.7 million H&E-ST pairs and >5.8 million single-cell profiles, demonstrating state-of-the-art performance across ten ST platforms, on both individual and coupled challenges. The real-world utility and generalizability were validated on a rare suprasellar tumor, papillary craniopharyngioma, and an unseen ST platform (Open-ST) for primary and metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Que, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tao, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Price, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.23.696267</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Foundational Generative Model for Cross-platform Unified Enhancement of Spatial Transcriptomics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.23.696288v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rapid fluorescence lifetime sensor development of LifeCamp enables transient and baseline absolute calcium measurements 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.23.696288v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Genetically encoded calcium sensors (GECIs) have been instrumental for studying neuronal activity and intracellular signaling. GECIs are typically fluorescence-intensity sensors that change brightness upon calcium binding. Iterative improvements in GECIs have yielded indicators that report action potential-evoked calcium entry with high sensitivity and temporal resolution, enabling measurement of network activity across thousands of neurons. However, fluorescence intensity-based measurements generally cannot report baseline or absolute calcium levels and may confound neuromodulatory regulation of calcium handling with changes in action potential firing. Fluorescence lifetime sensors are insensitive to many artifacts that plague intensity-based measures and report absolute substrate levels, including those at rest. However, relatively few lifetime sensors for neuronal signals exist, and developing new sensors is typically difficult and low-yield. Here, we introduce a new rapid lifetime sensor development (RALISED) platform, which we use to build a new GCaMP8m-based high-speed lifetime calcium sensor, termed LifeCamp. We show that LifeCamp enables comparison of baseline calcium signals in cell culture, brain slices, and mice. In addition, we show that LifeCamp enables the detection of fast action potential-evoked calcium transients in single neurons from brain slices and in behaving mice. Using LifeCamp, we discovered calcium baseline changes associated with neuronal activity in brain slices and behaving mice, as well as slow average calcium changes in neuronal populations of freely moving mice. Altogether, this study highlights the utility of the RALISED method to rapidly develop new lifetime sensors and the application of the LifeCamp calcium lifetime sensor to study fast and slow calcium signaling.

Significance statementWe developed a new high-speed, sensitive calcium lifetime sensor (LifeCamp) using a novel rapid lifetime sensor development (RALISED) platform. LifeCamp has high sensitivity and a large substrate-dependent lifetime change (<1ns), allowing for the capture of baseline calcium levels, transient calcium changes, and neuronal firing in vitro and behaving animals. LifeCamp lifetime measurement is insensitive to artifacts that plague conventional intensity imaging and enables absolute comparison of baseline and transient calcium changes across cells, brain regions, and experimental conditions. Hence, LifeCamp is a powerful tool that enables a more accurate and in-depth understanding of neuronal activity and calcium signaling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Lodder, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Raghubardayal, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ganesh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cai, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stern, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sherman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamath, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hartman, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siegel, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Timmins, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Adan, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andermann, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sabatini, B. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.23.696288</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rapid fluorescence lifetime sensor development of LifeCamp enables transient and baseline absolute calcium measurements]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.27.696718v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
tRNA isodecoder analysis using Nanopore ionic current signals and deep learning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.27.696718v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We describe application of Nanopore direct tRNA sequencing and ionic current signal for isodecoder-level analysis of bacterial and yeast tRNA. The computational advance is the application of deep learning for predicting tRNA isodecoders directly from raw nanopore ionic current signals. We then combined ionic current analysis with a pairwise sequence alignment strategy to improve tRNA sequence alignments. We applied this strategy to Nanopore data for E. coli and S. cerevisiae tRNA and aligned 2.6% and 13.1% more reads respectively when compared to present strategies for Nanopore tRNA analysis. Notably, this increase in alignments also came with a significant increase in alignment identity. The ionic current models confirmed enrichment of both an individual tRNA isotype and a tRNA fraction in separate experiments. Finally, we demonstrate that raw ionic current analysis is information-rich and has the potential to deconvolute dense chemical modifications in complex molecules like tRNA. This is an advance for tRNA analysis in prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes with potential to elucidate the role of tRNA in discovery biology and in human health applications.

SIMPLIFIED BANNER GRAPHIC
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Akeson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kakhaki, P. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Esfahani, N. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reinsch, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Barry, M. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zamecnik, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tzadikario, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abu-Shumays, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koutmou, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-28</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.27.696718</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[tRNA isodecoder analysis using Nanopore ionic current signals and deep learning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-28</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.28.696768v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structural and functional evidence for ephaptic control of Purkinje cell spike timing by networks of molecular layer interneurons 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.28.696768v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Axon collaterals of type 1 molecular layer interneurons (MLI1s) contribute to pinceaux that engulf the initial segments of Purkinje cell (PC) axons and generate extracellular signals that ephaptically inhibit PCs. Here we show that a remarkably large number of MLI1s ([~]50) contribute to each pinceau, and that this allows networks of synchronously firing MLI1s to use ephaptic signals to control the precise timing of PC firing in vivo.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Norton, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lackey, E. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozturk, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gaynor, C. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ediger, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lee, W.-C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hull, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Regehr, W. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2025-12-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.28.696768</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structural and functional evidence for ephaptic control of Purkinje cell spike timing by networks of molecular layer interneurons]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2025-12-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.31.697148v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ecological Dynamics of Pro-tumor and Anti-tumor Teams in the Tumor Microenvironment 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.31.697148v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tumor growth occurs within a complex tumor microenvironment (TME) composed of many interacting cell types. The immune cell types in TME tend to organize into two functional communities: a pro-tumor team and an anti-tumor team, each internally cooperative but mutually antagonistic forming a two-team ecosystem. Quantitatively predicting the ecological outcomes of such interactions remains challenging due to cellular diversity and interaction variability, and the exact dynamical regimes accessible to such a two-team ecosystem remain unknown. Here, we model tumor-immune interactions as a structured ecosystem with two competing teams using a generalized Lotka-Volterra framework and analyze it using the cavity method. We derive phase diagrams that delineate when these two communities coexist, when one dominates, and how these outcomes depend on intra-team cooperation, cross-team inhibition, and ecological heterogeneity. Our work provides a foundation for understanding tumor-immune dynamics from a community ecology perspective.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Anand, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.31.697148</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ecological Dynamics of Pro-tumor and Anti-tumor Teams in the Tumor Microenvironment]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.31.697236v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Integrative analysis of papain-like cysteine proteases and cystatins reveals stress-dependent regulatory modules in Arabidopsis thaliana 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.31.697236v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Plant papain-like cysteine proteases (PLCPs) and cystatins constitute a major protease-inhibitor system that contributes to plant signaling and responses to biotic and abiotic stress. Although the Arabidopsis genome encodes 31 predicted PLCPs and 7 cystatins, their coordinated regulation has not been systematically evaluated across major stress conditions. Here, we reprocessed and integrated AtGenExpress microarray datasets to analyze the expression patterns of 28 PLCPs and seven cystatins in response to bacterial infection (virulent and avirulent Pseudomonas syringae), wounding, and drought stress. In parallel, we performed in vitro enzyme activity assays to assess inhibition specificity of seven Arabidopsis cystatins against five abundantly expressed PLCPs. Finally, we used the support vector machine (SVM) package e1071 in R to integrate co-expression and inhibition data and to generate a hypothesis-generating PLCP-cystatin interaction network. Together, these analyses suggest that Arabidopsis deploys distinct PLCP and cystatin gene subsets in response to virulent versus avirulent bacterial infection, and that transcriptional modules associated with bacterial infection and wounding are largely distinct. In contrast, several drought-associated PLCP-cystatin modules overlap with those associated with basal defense, suggesting partially shared regulatory programs across abiotic and biotic stress.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yi, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.31.697236</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Integrative analysis of papain-like cysteine proteases and cystatins reveals stress-dependent regulatory modules in Arabidopsis thaliana]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.02.697375v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Aging, matrix metalloproteinase imaging, and survival prospects in aortic aneurysm 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.02.697375v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Age is a risk factor for aortic aneurysm (AA), and different segments of the aorta exhibit varying susceptibilities to aneurysm. The specific factors that contribute to the higher incidence of AA and its complications with aging remain unclear. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are elevated in AA. However, the connection between aging, aortic MMP activity, and the increased prevalence of AA and its complications has not been systematically evaluated. This study leveraged MMP-targeted molecular imaging to investigate how aging affects aortic MMP expression and activity, as well as aneurysm development and survival.

MethodsAA development and animal survival were monitored for 28 days after Angiotensin (Ang)-II infusion in 8-10-week-old (young) and >51-week-old (old) Apoe-/- mice. Aortic MMP activation was quantified by PET/CT using an MMP-targeted tracer, 64Cu-RYM2, at baseline and 1 week after Ang II infusion. MMP activity and expression were quantified by tissue zymography and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and compared between different segments of the aorta in young and old animals, and before and after Ang II infusion.

ResultsOld animals survival to 28 days was significantly lower than that of young Ang-II-infused Apoe-/- mice (P < 0.05). 64Cu-RYM2 PET/CT showed significantly higher aortic MMP activation before and 1 week after Ang-II infusion in old compared to young Apoe-/-mice. The 64Cu-RYM2 signal was significantly higher in animals that did not survive 28 days than those that did (P < 0.01). MMP activity significantly increased by 4 days after Ang-II infusion, when dissection was found in a subset of Apoe-/- mice; and was significantly higher in the dissected, compared to adjacent, apparently normal, segments of the aorta. MMP activity was also significantly higher in the ascending thoracic aorta of untreated young and old mice, as well as of Ang-II-treated Apoe-/-mice (which was associated with significantly higher Mmp2 gene expression), and of old wild-type mice.

ConclusionAging is associated with increased MMP activity along the aorta and worse AA survival. MMP-targeted molecular imaging can inform the aneurysm survival prospects. Selective MMP inhibitors and tracers may help prevent and track aneurysm growth, dissection, and rupture.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ghim, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Varli, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ahmad, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neishabouri, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kukreja, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarnegar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gangemi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Toczek, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gropler, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sadeghi, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.02.697375</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Aging, matrix metalloproteinase imaging, and survival prospects in aortic aneurysm]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.05.697809v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Can AI Conduct Autonomous Scientific Research? Case Studies on Two Real-World Tasks 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.05.697809v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have prompted claims about autonomous "AI scientists," yet systematic evaluations of these capabilities remain scarce. This exploratory study investigates whether current AI frameworks can execute scientific research tasks beyond isolated demonstrations. We tested eight open-source AI frameworks (Agent Laboratory, AutoGen, BabyAGI, GPT Researcher, MOOSE-Chem2, SciAgents, SciMON, and Virtual Lab) on two tasks that aimed to reproduce research on algorithm development from recent papers in uncertainty quantification and protein interaction discovery. In our evaluation, no framework completed a full research cycle from literature understanding through computational execution to validated results and scientific paper writing. While all systems showed competence in conceptual tasks such as planning and summarization, they consistently failed at robust implementation. Every framework produced sophisticated hallucinations. Deployment proved demanding, requiring substantial debugging and technical expertise, which undermines common claims about the democratization of science with AI. Despite these limitations, the frameworks showed promise as research assistants for methodological planning and ideation under careful human supervision. Our findings suggest that the explored AI systems cannot yet autonomously conduct scientific research, but may provide real value for specific subtasks within the research workflow. We offer preliminary observations to help researchers and developers better understand the gap between advertised and actual capabilities of AI in science.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Agrawal, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anadkat, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Athimoolam, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhardwaj, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chowdhury, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamat, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makwana, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shariff, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Badkul, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sinitskiy, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.05.697809</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Can AI Conduct Autonomous Scientific Research? Case Studies on Two Real-World Tasks]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.06.698019v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
3D genome architecture regulates the traffic of transcription factors throughout human chromosomes 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.06.698019v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcription factors (TFs) control the rate of transcription of genetic information by binding to specific DNA sequences. The time needed for a TF to find its specific target sites is a bottleneck to the genetic response mechanism. While TF target site search is a well-studied problem, the effect of genome 3D architecture on the TF target search times is poorly understood. Here, we use accurate and cell-specific 3D structural ensembles of human chromosomes to investigate how the spatial organization of binding sites on chromosomes influences the dynamics of TFs. We use Chromatin Immuno-Precipitation data to map the position of binding sites for several TFs on chromosomal structures and simulate the dynamics of individual TF within chromosomal territories. We find that the distribution of binding sites along chromosomes cooperates with the 3D folding of the chromatin fiber to induce dynamics in which TFs tend to visit sites distributed sequentially along the genome. In this way, genome 3D architecture appears to reduce the time each TF spends in the unbound state while commuting from one target site to the other. At the same time, genome 3D architecture further reduces the flux of TFs between binding sites already well separated along the genome, effectively isolating distant clusters of binding sites. We compare the TF traffic patterns generated by the 3D structures of human chromosomes with those generated by several alternative structural models characterized by increasing randomness. Finally, we study the effect of lengthwise compaction and phase separation, known architectural features of the human genome, in TFs target search. In short, our analysis demonstrates that genome architecture regulates the traffic of TFs within chromosomal territories and reduces the time each TF spends commuting between binding sites.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Das, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cheng, R. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Potoyan, D. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Pierro, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.06.698019</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[3D genome architecture regulates the traffic of transcription factors throughout human chromosomes]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.07.698275v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Small molecule stabilization of diverse amyloidogenic immunoglobulin light chains revealed by hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.07.698275v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Immunoglobulin light chains, a component of antibodies, can misfold and aggregate to cause systemic AL amyloidosis. Aggregation, including amyloid fibril formation, requires unfolding of the full-length light chain from its native state, and in most cases aberrant proteolysis. Small molecules that bind to the native state of light chains to stabilize them against conformational excursions and proteolysis are under development as drug candidates for AL amyloidosis. Since each patient has a unique light chain sequence, a challenge for candidate stabilizer drugs is to bind multiple light chains and suppress their dynamics. Here, we used hydrogen-deuterium exchange measured by mass spectrometry to characterize the binding of six small molecule stabilizers to eleven different {lambda} light chain proteins. Despite structural and dynamic differences among the light chains, the binding of the most efficacious stabilizer molecule led to increased protection from hydrogen exchange, consistent with reduced local and global unfolding. Protection upon binding was most prominent in residues within complementarity determining region 3 and framework region 4 of the light chain variable domains, which undergo major conformational changes enabling amyloid formation. Stabilizer binding also reduced the rate at which all light chains were cleaved by protease. These data show that these stabilizers suppress the range of conformational dynamics associated with light chain aggregation, supporting their therapeutic potential.

HighlightsO_LISmall-molecule kinetic stabilizers suppress conformational dynamics and aberrant proteolysis of diverse amyloidogenic full-length {lambda} light chains.
C_LIO_LIHDX-MS indicates conserved protection in regions forming the interface between the two variable domains of the light chain dimer, corresponding to residues that form the core of patient-derived amyloid fibrils.
C_LIO_LIPLIMSTEX binding titrations show coupled binding, dimerization and stabilization at sub-micromolar kinetic stabilizer concentrations.
C_LIO_LISmall molecule kinetic stabilization across different {lambda} sequences supports kinetic stabilizers as a promising therapeutic strategy for AL amyloidosis.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Peterle, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, N. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klimtchuk, E. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gursky, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelly, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morgan, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.07.698275</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Small molecule stabilization of diverse amyloidogenic immunoglobulin light chains revealed by hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.31.697248v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Positive germline selection of mtDNA mutations: evidence from the oocyte. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.31.697248v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Purifying selection of mtDNA mutations is a vital process that cleanses the mitochondrial genome of detrimental variants that may endanger individuals and populations. A common measure of purifying selection is the increase of average synonymity by reduction the proportion of mostly detrimental non-synonymous mutations. The mechanisms underlying purifying selection are still debated.

The Makova group has recently published high-fidelity analysis of mtDNA mutations in individual human oocytes (Arbeithuber et al., 2025). The authors observed a decrease in the proportion of potentially detrimental coding and conservative mutations at higher mutant fractions (MFs) and interpreted this as purifying selection removing detrimental mutations at higher MFs.

We noted, however, that, in contrast to what would be expected under purifying selection, the synonymity of oocyte mutations was very low and decreased, rather than increased, at higher MFs. We hypothesized that this inconsistency resulted from non-synonymous mutations being prone to strong positive selection which erroneously made coding mutations appear negatively selected in comparison. In support of our hypothesis, we show that non-coding oocytes mutations indeed are under strong positive selection. To alleviate this setback, we reanalyzed the data using a new metric of intracellular clonal selection and neutral synonymous mutations as the reference. We demonstrated that coding mutations are in fact under prevailing positive selection. This is in line with previous estimates of positive selection in primordial germ cells (PGCs) and in mother-child pairs. Importantly, "prevailing positive selection" does not imply the absence of negative selection. We show that specific types of mutations may be under prevailing purifying selection (e.g., the Co1 gene).

Of note, this prevailing positive selection pertains only to the most recent, germline mtDNA mutations which have not been yet inherited into the next generation. Purifying selection steps in as germline mutations proceed to subsequent generations. The implications of these findings and the potential benefits of positive selection of detrimental mtDNA mutations are discussed.

Graphical summaryGermline mtDNA mutations fuel evolution, shape population genomics, and cause mitochondrial disease. Yet it remains unresolved whether mtDNA selection in the germline is predominantly purifying or positive. A recent high-fidelity single-oocyte study (Arbeithuber et al., 2025) reported purifying(negative) selection on germline mutations at elevated mutant fractions (MFs). However, the low synonymity of oocyte mutations and concerns about using non-coding mutations as a reference for estimating selection prompted us to reanalyze the data. In single cells, mtDNA mutations are subject to genetic drift which randomly expands mtDNA clones. In this context, selection means that some mutant clones expand systematically faster (positive selection), or slower/get lost (purifying selection) than expected by random drift.



O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=179 SRC="FIGDIR/small/697248v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (65K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@96fc4eorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@8e717eorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1bd38b8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1d6cc69_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG O_FLOATNOFigure A.C_FLOATNO Cumulative proportion curves of relevant types of mutations (color coded). The corresponding selection metrics,[S] 0.01, and Monte-Carlo p-values are shown, analyses for other thresholds: tables 2 and S1

C_FIG O_TBL View this table:
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1063ef6org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@10fa4b2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@5e13corg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@64afaorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@12484f3_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_TBL O_FLOATNOTable S1.C_FLOATNO C_TBL In Figure 1, datapoints represent clones of mutations ranked by their size and plotted vs. their cumulative contribution to the mutational pool (in reverse order). The resulting cumulative curves represent the collective expansion of clones of mutations of each type. As previously shown by direct simulations (Franco et al., 2025), the slope of the curve qualitatively depicts the relative intensity of clonal expansion. The green curve consists of synonymous (neutral) mutations and thus defines the trajectory of expansion driven by neutral genetic drift. Curves that diverge upward from the neutral green curve imply faster-than-neutral expansion, i.e., positive selection in corresponding mutation types, and those that diverge downward (grey Co1 curve) imply negative selection.

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=169 SRC="FIGDIR/small/697248v1_fig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
View larger version (49K):
org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@9483a5org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@4efc4dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1964229org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1d1c5d9_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP  M_FIG O_FLOATNOFigure 1.C_FLOATNO Cumulative proportion curves of relevant types of mutations (color coded).

C_FIG To estimate selection, we first defined  extent of clonal expansion,[E] t (mutant class), a measure of overall clonal expansion, i.e., the proportion of aggregate fraction of mutants of a particular class in clones that exceeded a specific size (i.e., MF). For example,[E] 0.01(coding) is the ratio of aggregate mutant fraction of all large clones (MF>0.01) of coding mutations, divided by the aggregate mutant fraction of all coding mutations.[E] t changes with t, but at each t, it permits us to compare the extent of expansion between different classes of mutations (e.g., coding vs. non-coding).

Selection at the intracellular level manifests as an acceleration or deceleration of the expansion (or loss) of mutant clones relative to the expansion expected under random drift, as represented by synonymous mutations. Accordingly, a measure of clonal selection for a tested mutation class, denoted[S] t(tested), is defined as the excess clonal expansion in the tested mutations over expansion of synonymous mutations, normalized by the expansion of synonymous mutations: O_FD O_INLINEFIG[Formula 1]C_INLINEFIGM_FD(1)C_FD In Fig.1, [S]0.01 and p-values demonstrate:

O_LIStrong positive selection of noncoding mutations (blue).
C_LIO_LIPositive selection of coding mutations (orange).
C_LIO_LIA higher positive selection in conservative (i.e., more detrimental) coding mutations (red). So, selection may be driven by the detrimental effects of mtDNA mutations.
C_LIO_LINegative selection in the Co1 gene (grey). Thus, negative/purifying selection does exist, but dominates only in specific small regions (like Co1).
C_LIO_LISelection in non-coding mutations starts at low mutant fractions, coding at higher mutant fractions.
C_LI

This confirms the prevalence of positive selection and clarifies why Arbeithuber et al. perceived selection as purifying. The authors compared coding to non-coding mutations. The latter are under stronger positive selection than coding mutations. Thus, coding mutations appear to be under relative negative selection, but only in comparison to non-synonymous mutations, not in absolute, real terms. Note that positive selection does not necessarily proceed in oocytes. Some of the mutations present in oocytes originate in primordial germ cells (PGCs), where they may also have been under selection before being passed on to oocytes. Indeed, positive selection in PGCs has been demonstrated previously (Fleischmann et al., 2024).

Finally, positive selection of detrimental mutations in oocytes may seem surprising from an evolutionary perspective. A possible explanation is that the detrimental effects of mtDNA mutations usually do not show up till MF surpasses a  physiological threshold. Thus, positive expansion may expose the detrimental phenotype of mutations and assist in removing carrier cells, embryos, or individuals, thus reducing burden on the mother. In line with this, purifying selection become prevalent among inherited mtDNA mutations.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleischmann, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Annis, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cote-L'Heureux, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aidlen, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vyshedskiy, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mirzoyan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bandell, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Popadin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tilly, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2025.12.31.697248</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Positive germline selection of mtDNA mutations: evidence from the oocyte.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.08.694967v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Energetic implications of fMRI-based nodal complex network metrics: a complex picture unfolds across diverse brain states 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.08.694967v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Functional MRI-based graph theory has provided profound insights into the brains functional organization, yet the neuroenergetic meaning of widely used graph-theoretical metrics remains poorly understood. Although resting-state research suggests a positive coupling between network topology and glucose metabolism, it remains unclear whether this relationship reflects a general principle of brain organization or a state-specific phenomenon. Here, we test the neuroenergetic interpretability of nodal graph-theoretical metrics by linking complex network topology to cerebral glucose consumption across diverse brain states. Leveraging simultaneous functional PET-MRI, we directly compare state-dependent fluctuations in glucose consumption and network topology during sensory, cognitive, and arousal conditions. We further assess metabolic-topological couplings in disease through a meta-analysis of resting-state FDG-PET and fMRI studies involving Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia. Our results show that nodal graph-theoretical metrics exhibit state- and network-dependent metabolic associations, with coupling patterns diverging across experimental and disease contexts. Notably, frontoparietal and attentional networks show more conserved metabolic-topological coupling than other large-scale networks across states. These findings underscore a dynamic, complex interplay between metabolic demand and complex network organization, highlighting the need for a nuanced interpretation of the energetic underpinnings of nodal graph-theoretical metrics in health and disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Feng, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coursey, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nolin, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zurcher, N. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wey, H.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polimeni, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Villien, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bhanot, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosen, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hooker, J. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.08.694967</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Energetic implications of fMRI-based nodal complex network metrics: a complex picture unfolds across diverse brain states]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.09.697058v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Pannexin-1 channel activity regulates neurogenesis and cell survival in the developing cortex 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.09.697058v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mutations in genes encoding a range of ion-conducting proteins disrupt development of the cerebral cortex in humans, often causing polymicrogyria (PMG), yet how ion conduction guides the development of cortical architecture is not clear. Here, we describe three individuals with brain malformations including PMG and microcephaly in whom de novo, missense mutations were identified in PANX1--encoding an ATP and ion conducting channel. We show that these PMG-associated PANX1 mutations (p.D14H, p.M37R, and p.N338T) disrupt normal glycosylation and confer gain-of-function with respect to ATP release and channel conductance. In vivo modeling of PANX1 mutant forms in cortical progenitor cells demonstrated disrupted cell migration and cell fate, including excess cell death in both mice and ferret models. Modeling the N338T allele in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons further revealed how conductance changes lead to functional consequences of increased excitability and synchronicity. Our results show that normal PANX1 function contributes to cortical structure through regulation of ion conductance and ATP release and provides insight into how these processes influence corticogenesis and cytoarchitecture more broadly.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hylton, N. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kang, D. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Decker, S. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Exposito-Alonso, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cambridge, C. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Golinski, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soriano, K. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Neil, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Talukdar, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Andersen, R. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Buckner, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qian, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Doddi, A. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Braddock, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DeGennaro, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akula, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Simo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, R. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walsh, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.09.697058</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Pannexin-1 channel activity regulates neurogenesis and cell survival in the developing cortex]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.13.699378v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Legionella and Mycobacterium populations exhibit geographic structuring across and within drinking water systems 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.13.699378v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Opportunistic pathogens (OPs) within the Legionella and Mycobacterium can persist and sometimes proliferate in drinking water systems and pose a risk to public health. Most prior research has focused on isolated system components of the drinking water treatment and distribution system and has rarely examined spatiotemporal dynamics across the entire source water, treatment process, and distribution system continuum. This study addresses this critical knowledge gap by quantitative profiling of microbial communities with full length 16S rRNA gene sequencing and flow cytometry, and associated water chemistry parameters, including disinfection byproducts (DBPs), across five full-scale utilities. These utilities reflect varying source water types, geographic locations, treatment regimes, and climate zones. Microbial communities, including Legionella and Mycobacterium populations, in distribution system were shaped by source water type and exhibited significant community divergence across utilities. Within the same genus, strain-level analyses revealed highly distinct Legionella and Mycobacterium sequence variants unique to each utility. Interestingly, a substantial proportion of Legionella and Mycobacterium amplicon sequence variants were both utility specific and often specific to locations within the distribution system, indicating strong geographic structuring both across and within drinking water systems. Understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of this geographic structuring is critical to develop robust strategies for managing and monitoring Legionella and Mycobacterium populations in drinking water systems.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>He, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>DiLoreto, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milne, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Impellitteri, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stubbins, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pieper, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Graham, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, C.-H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pinto, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.13.699378</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Legionella and Mycobacterium populations exhibit geographic structuring across and within drinking water systems]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.15.699787v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Aerobic Exercise Preserves Capillary Oxygen Homeostasis and Neurovascular Function in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.15.699787v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Age-related cerebrovascular dysfunction is increasingly recognized as a critical contributor to cognitive decline and Alzheimers disease (AD) progression. Aerobic physical activity (PA) and other modifiable lifestyle interventions can substantially reduce the likelihood of dementia; however, their ability to mitigate cerebrovascular alterations remains poorly defined. PA reportedly improves systemic vascular health and cognitive function in aging humans, but its impact on cerebrovascular function during aging and amyloid {beta} (A{beta}) pathology is unclear. Here, we longitudinally quantified microvascular oxygen tension and stimulus-evoked oxygen dynamics in awake APP/PS1dE9 mice and wild-type littermates using two-photon phosphorescence lifetime microscopy. Routine aerobic PA initiated in early adulthood preserved basal arteriolar, capillary, and venular oxygenation, prevented age-dependent increases in microvascular heterogeneity, and mitigated excessive oxygen extraction in preclinical AD mice. While amyloid pathology impaired stimulus-evoked oxygen responses across vascular compartments, PA selectively enhanced capillary dilation and accelerated hyperemic kinetics without altering vascular density or architecture. Notably, sedentary AD mice developed lower, widely-dispersed distributions in capillary oxygenation, hallmarks of malignant microvascular dysfunction, which were largely absent in physically active animals. These findings demonstrate that routine aerobic PA preserves basal capillary oxygenation and stimulus-evoked hyperemia during aging and A{beta}, supporting a capillary-centric mechanism through which exercise confers neurovascular resilience in preclinical AD.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cardenas-Rivera, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erdogmus, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Birmingham, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yee, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Anton, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morais, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Loghmani, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yaseen, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.15.699787</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Aerobic Exercise Preserves Capillary Oxygen Homeostasis and Neurovascular Function in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.16.699909v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An integrated, scaled approach to resolve TSC2 variants of uncertain significance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.16.699909v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Obtaining a precise genetic tuberous sclerosis diagnosis is a challenge as many missense TSC2 variants are variants of uncertain significance (VUS). VUS in TSC2 have been resolved by one-at-a-time functional assays, but these assays cannot scale to the 3,634 TSC2 missense VUS observed so far. To address this challenge, we used massively parallel sequencing to measure the steady-state abundance of almost 9,000 TSC2 missense variants and developed an mTOR pathway activity assay using genome editing and cell sorting to generate activity scores for 391 missense variants. 1,288 of 8,891 (14.49%) missense variants assayed had altered TSC2 abundance, and 69 of 391 (17.65%) missense variants assayed had altered mTOR pathway activity. Calibration and integration of these data into classification of variants identified in a clinical cohort putatively reclassified 212 of 276 (76.8%) TSC2 missense VUS. These datasets will lead to improved genetic diagnosis of tuberous sclerosis with potential positive impacts on the clinical management of patients and their families.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Biar, C. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Camp, N. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holmes, D. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wheelock, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pendyala, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McGee, A. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gupta, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McEwen, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tejura, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Richardson, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weyandt, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coleman, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stewart, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeiberg, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vandi, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawson, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Starita, L. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carvill, G. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>James, R. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fowler, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Calhoun, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.16.699909</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An integrated, scaled approach to resolve TSC2 variants of uncertain significance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.18.700207v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Hyperactivated YAP1 Drives an Invasive EMT Subtype of Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.18.700207v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cervical cancer (CVC) is classically understood as an HPV-driven disease in which high-risk HPV infects cervical basal epithelial cells, induces neoplastic transformation, and drives upward epithelial expansion, pathogenic events underlying the success of cytology- and HPV-based screening. With widespread HPV vaccination and screening, the WHO has launched the CVC elimination initiative and believes that CVC will be the first cancer that would be eliminated as a public health problem. However, statistics showed that CVC remains the most common gynecologic malignancy worldwide, and in the United States, where HPV testing and Pap smears have reached near-maximal implementation, the CVC mortality rate has plateaued for more than two decades. These epidemiologic trends suggest the existence of a subset of CVC that can escape current screening strategies. Here, we demonstrate that hyperactivation of YAP1 caused by disruption of Hippo-YAP signaling is sufficient to induce a subtype of HPV-independent invasive CVC that lacks surface lesions and therefore evades HPV- and cytology-based detection. Using single-cell RNA sequencing combined with high-resolution spatial transcriptomics, we define the cellular architecture, molecular pathways, and immune microenvironment underlying this invasive subtype. We show that YAP1-driven tumors adopt an EMT-high transcriptional state and selectively recruit immunosuppressive myeloid-derived suppressor cells that functionally interact with cancer cells to promote invasion and progression. Our findings suggest that targeting the disrupted Hippo signaling may offer a new strategy to prevent the subset of invasive CVC that current HPV- and Pap-based programs cannot detect, an essential step toward achieving global CVC elimination.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lv, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ruan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>He, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hua, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhao, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polakkottil, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moness, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carbajal, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kurma, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guda, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohamed, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Abioye, o.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sadreyev, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>davis, J. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.18.700207</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Hyperactivated YAP1 Drives an Invasive EMT Subtype of Cervical Squamous Cell Carcinoma]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.19.700400v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ribosomal Protein bL27 Protects Translating Ribosomes from tmRNA-SmpB 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.19.700400v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Bacterial ribosomal protein bL27 is universally conserved and its amino terminus is adjacent to the peptidyl transfer center, yet its role in translation remains unclear. Combining genetics, biochemistry and molecular dynamics, we show that bL27 has an unexpected role in preventing trans-translation, the bacterial ribosome rescue mechanism, from interfering with protein synthesis. Deletion of the bL27 gene causes a 10,000-fold decrease in viability and this defect is partially rescued by deletion of the gene encoding tmRNA, a critical molecule for trans-translation. Molecular dynamics simulations also indicate that bL27 can slow the movement of tmRNA on the ribosome. These data link trans-translation and bL27, and support a model in which the amino terminus of bL27 acts as a gatekeeper to prevent tmRNA from sterically interfering with tRNA on the ribosome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Seerpatham, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wanes, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pathirage, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cabrera, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Usoro, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koutmou, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dunham, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Whitford, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Keiler, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.19.700400</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ribosomal Protein bL27 Protects Translating Ribosomes from tmRNA-SmpB]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.700404v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PfApiAT2 is a proline transporter essential for the transmission of  Plasmodium falciparum  by the mosquito vector. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.700404v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Plasmodium falciparum oocysts undergo an explosive biomass increase during development in Anopheles mosquitoes, a dramatic growth process likely promoted by as-yet unknown nutrients scavenged from the mosquito. We previously observed in blood-stage parasites, that the amino acid transporter PfApiAT2, although dispensable, regulates proline homeostasis and mediates resistance to halofuginone, a potent proline-tRNA synthetase inhibitor. Here, we demonstrate that PfApiAT2 is a proline-specific transporter essential for early oocyst development in Anopheles gambiae. Halofuginone-resistant pfapiat2-mutant parasites form stunted oocysts severely defective in sporozoite production. This phenotype is recapitulated in PfApiAT2-knockout parasites that undergo a complete block in sporogony, forming oocysts that stall and degenerate. Remarkably, this growth defect can be rescued by nutrient supplementation to the mosquito vector. By identifying an amino acid transporter essential for oocyst growth, our data unveil a vulnerability in P. falciparum transmission, revealing a critical nutritional dependency of the parasite on its mosquito vector.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Khushu, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kissel, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kauffman, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Taccheri, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Summers, R. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Plant, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wirth, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Catteruccia, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bopp, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.20.700404</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PfApiAT2 is a proline transporter essential for the transmission of  Plasmodium falciparum  by the mosquito vector.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.21.700878v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PRISME: A MATLAB Toolbox For Large Data-Driven Multimodal Power Benchmarking 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.21.700878v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Low statistical power in neuroimaging often undermines research in the field, leading to missed effects, wasted resources, and reduced reproducibility. Performing power analyses during the study design phase is extremely important, but often prohibitively difficult due to a lack of analytical solutions and high computational costs. We present PRISME (Power Resampling Infrastructure for Statistical Method Evaluation), a MATLAB toolbox for neuroimaging power benchmarking. PRISME provides a computational framework for empirical power analysis independent of inference methods, enabling large scale power benchmarking and method comparison. The toolbox supports diverse neuroimaging data types, including both voxel-based activation and functional connectivity analyses, with a non-parametric, flexible algorithm and unified data representations. Furthermore, unlike previous empirical power approaches, PRISME supports multiple test types, such as association and difference tests with behavioral and clinical measures. Finally, PRISMEs 25x speedup from algorithmic optimizations enables larger-scale power benchmarking, including the first power analysis for the ABCD dataset. Overall, PRISME is the first method- and data-type-agnostic power benchmarking tool for neuroimaging, providing a single solution for power analysis across diverse study designs.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cravo, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fischbach, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shearer, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosenblatt, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scheinost, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noble, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-22</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.21.700878</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PRISME: A MATLAB Toolbox For Large Data-Driven Multimodal Power Benchmarking]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-22</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.699925v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Extracellular vesicles facilitate the horizontal transfer of drug resistance and stem-like properties between ovarian tumor cells 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.699925v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ovarian cancer stem cells (CSCs) can seed recurrent drug-resistant disease. Likewise, non-CSCs can acquire CSC phenotypic properties. How this process is orchestrated is of interest to inform how it might be prevented. We tested the hypothesis that ovarian CSC and/or drug-resistant tumor cells confer stem-like properties via extracellular vesicles (EVs). We focused our investigation on how EVs might mediate EZH2 signaling to promote a phenotypic change in drug-sensitive, non-CSCs. To accomplish this, we utilized paired PARP inhibitor-sensitive and - resistant ovarian cancer (OvCa) cell lines, EZH2 knockdown lines, and patient-derived organoids (PDOs) originating from recurrent high-grade serous OvCa. Small EVs isolated from drug-sensitive, CSC and/or drug-resistant enriched cultures, PARP inhibitor (olaparib) resistant lines, or drug-treated (olaparib or carboplatin) lines were cultured with treatment naive or sensitive lines for defined time points. The impact of small EV exposure was determined by assessing cell number, metabolic activity, viability, sphere and colony-forming capacity, ALDH activity, DNA damage, and changes in associated signaling pathways. We found that EVs from CSC or drug-resistant enriched cell fractions communicate CSC-like phenotypes to the more sensitive tumor cells via EZH2 canonical and non-canonical signaling pathways, promoting stemness. We conclude that EV-mediated activation of EZH2 signaling represents a targetable mechanism contributing to stemness-associated drug resistance in OvCa.

Graphical abstract

O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=160 SRC="FIGDIR/small/699925v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1">
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]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pooladanda, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zarella, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matoba, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shimada, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dibenedetto, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qin, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sarosiek, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krueger, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Magrassi, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amiji, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Azimi-Mohammadabadi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Winter, U.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castro, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Im, H. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kumar, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cowdon-Dahl, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nephew, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yeku, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milane, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rueda, B. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.20.699925</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Extracellular vesicles facilitate the horizontal transfer of drug resistance and stem-like properties between ovarian tumor cells]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.21.700636v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
PRDX6 Modulates Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Response by Antagonizing Ferroptosis Induced By HDAC Inhibitors 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.21.700636v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Therapeutic resistance limits the efficacy of histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors and immune checkpoint therapies in cancer. While HDAC inhibitors can induce ferroptosis, tumor cells often evade this cell death via antioxidant defenses. Here we identify peroxiredoxin 6 (PRDX6) as a critical modulator of resistance to HDAC inhibitor largazole by suppressing ferroptosis through its phospholipase A2 activity and maintaining GPX4 expression. Using genome-wide CRISPR activation screening, biochemical assays, and syngeneic tumor models, we show that PRDX6 depletion enhances largazole-induced lipid peroxidation, ferroptotic stress, and reshapes the tumor microenvironment to promote T-cell infiltration and inflammatory cytokine release. Importantly, combining PRDX6 knockdown with HDAC inhibition potentiates anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy efficacy and prolongs survival in vivo. These findings reveal PRDX6 as a redox gatekeeper linking ferroptosis resistance to immune evasion and suggest that co-targeting PRDX6 and HDAC pathways may improve responses to cancer immunotherapy.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>John, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanchez, G. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.21.700636</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[PRDX6 Modulates Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Response by Antagonizing Ferroptosis Induced By HDAC Inhibitors]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.22.701166v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Histology-Aware Graph for Modeling Intercellular Communication in Spatial Transcriptomics 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.22.701166v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cell-cell communication (CCC) is essential to how life forms and functions. Recent tools achieve single-cell-resolved CCC inference utilizing spatial transcriptomics (ST). However, most ignore the modeling of tissue contexts surrounding cells, causing high false-positive/negative rates. Here, we propose HARMONIC, a CCC inference method integrating multimodal ST and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained images. HARMONIC causally modeling the transcriptomic-to-contextual relationships for CCC inference. The state-of-the-art performance was verified across ST platforms, species and healthy/diseased status, on both synthetic and biological samples. HARMONIC was applied in various real-world scenarios, especially on tissues with clear morphological boundaries, including cortical layers in mouse brain, medullary-cortex structures in mouse kidney, as well as tumor-stromal/immune interface. Significant refinement of false-positive/negative predictions was observed compared to ST-only CCC tools.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tao, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jiang, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Que, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xi, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Price, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mou, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.22.701166</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Histology-Aware Graph for Modeling Intercellular Communication in Spatial Transcriptomics]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.22.701078v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The 	C. elegans nervous system reads the internal state of the hydrogen peroxide-detoxification machinery to trigger escape from this common reactive chemical 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.22.701078v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is the most common reactive chemical threat faced by organisms. Here, we map the neural circuit that drives chemotactic escape from environmental H2O2 in the nematode C. elegans. Twenty-four neuron classes with sensory endings at the mouth and nose of the animal detect H2O2. Their response dynamics encode stimulus intensity and exposure history, and their partial redundancy makes avoidance resilient to the loss of individual inputs. Sensing begins when H2O2 oxidizes the peroxidatic and resolving cysteines of the cytosolic peroxiredoxin PRDX-2, which relays this oxidative signal to cysteines on the LITE-1 and GUR-3 ion channels, triggering calcium influx in sensory neurons that drive escape. Most of these neurons release glutamate to drive H2O2-dependent excitation of AIA interneurons, whereas others signal through non-glutamatergic routes, providing multiple routes for signal transmission. Thus, the C. elegans nervous system acts as a hydrogen peroxide sentinel that monitors H2O2-induced changes in the intracellular H2O2-detoxification machinery and relays them to interneurons driving organism-wide escape. This raises the possibility that circuit defects in aging and neurodegenerative disease arise from altered peroxiredoxin-mediated H2O2 signaling rather than primarily from direct macromolecular damage.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Xu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gangadharan, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seyedolmohadesin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gebeyaw, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fulton, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ashih, C. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duncan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zelich, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Torkashvand, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaw, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gusarova, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Macwan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kelly, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beslic, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sood, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Scholz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Venkatachalam, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Apfeld, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.22.701078</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The 	C. elegans nervous system reads the internal state of the hydrogen peroxide-detoxification machinery to trigger escape from this common reactive chemical]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.25.701594v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A low-variance subspace underlies individual differences in resting state fMRI 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.25.701594v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
People differ remarkably from one another, yet isolating individual differences in their brain activity remains challenging. Non-invasive whole-brain recordings of human brain activity, such as those from resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI), are complex and noisy, making it difficult to isolate stable dimensions of individual differences. Ideally, we want to find a few core dimensions that vary across people but have high test-retest reliability, giving the same value each time they are measured in the same person. However, it is still unknown whether any such reliable dimensions exist, and if they do, what could drive this reliability. Here, we show that there is a low-dimensional linear subspace of highly-reliable rs-fMRI activity. These dimensions form personal fingerprints, allowing participants to be identified with high accuracy despite fingerprints explaining only a fraction of the total variance. Many of these dimensions inherit their reliability from a single morphological, demographic, or behavioral property, and most dimensions can be predicted from the anatomical layout of cortical regions. These dimensions were identified using reliability component analysis (RCA), a new dimensionality reduction technique similar to principal component analysis (PCA) but which maximizes reliability instead of explained variance. Together, our findings suggest that stable individual signatures can be isolated from rs-fMRI. These signatures reflect persistent anatomical and physiological differences, and provide a principled low-dimensional basis for biomarker discovery.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Borovykh, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Weissenbacher, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noble, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shinn, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.25.701594</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A low-variance subspace underlies individual differences in resting state fMRI]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.25.701601v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
An Integrated Multiphoton Imaging Workflow for Quantitative Analysis of Aortic Tissue Microstructure 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.25.701601v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Quantitative, reproducible characterization of aortic microstructure is essential for advancing vascular biomechanics and mechanobiology. To address this need, we present a comprehensive image-analysis workflow that extracts quantitative descriptors of tissue microstructure from multiphoton microscopy stacks of the murine thoracic aorta. Channel-specific signals are acquired for fibrillar collagen (second harmonic generation), elastin (two-photon autofluorescence), and cell nuclei (two-photon excited fluorescence). Following reorientation into the XZ plane, individual elastic lamellae are traced to quantify lamellar thickness and interlamellar spacing using circle-based geometry (Taubin fitting). After correction for vessel wall curvature via a cylindrical transformation, segmented nuclei are assigned to medial or adventitial compartments based on visual estimates of adventitial volume fraction, and nuclear morphology is characterized via ellipsoidal fitting in terms of nuclear aspect ratio and major-axis orientation. Collagen organization is resolved in XY sections by extracting fiber centerlines to quantify straightness and amplitude; traces from serial sections are then combined to reconstruct the three-dimensional collagen network and estimate porosity and linear fiber density, while fiber orientation distributions are derived from principal component analysis-based angles and fit using a von Mises mixture model. Finally, collagen and elastin volume fractions are computed via a two-stage fixed-threshold approach calibrated on a balanced training subset. Overall, this modular and robust workflow provides an integrated framework for studying aortic wall remodeling across physiological and pathological processes.

Non-Technical SummaryAs the main blood vessel in our body, the aorta needs to be both strong and flexible. This balance comes from three main parts: elastic layers that allow the aorta to stretch, strong fibers that prevent tearing, and cells that sense and respond to changes in blood pressure and other signals. When any of these components are altered, the aorta may stiffen or weaken, which can interfere with normal blood flow. In this study, we developed a clear and consistent way to measure the structure of the aortic wall using microscope images. The approach examines how thick the elastic layers are and how far apart they lie, the size and orientation of cell centers, and how straight or wavy structural fibers appear. It also estimates how much of each component is present in the aortic wall. Because the same steps are applied each time, results can be fairly compared across different conditions. Overall, this tool transforms detailed images into simple measurements, helping scientists understand how the aorta changes in health and disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Baig, M. M. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vargas, A. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jennings, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Amini, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bellini, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.25.701601</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[An Integrated Multiphoton Imaging Workflow for Quantitative Analysis of Aortic Tissue Microstructure]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.26.701743v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Traumatic Brain Injury Associated with Altered Corpus Callosum Microstructure in Females: Exploring the Roles of Menopause Timing and Hormone Therapy in UK Biobank 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.26.701743v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundTraumatic brain injury (TBI) has lasting effects on white matter, yet sex-specific factors such as menopause timing and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may modulate these outcomes in females.

ObjectivesTo investigate how TBI, menopause timing, HRT use, and reproductive history relate to corpus callosum white matter microstructure in female UK Biobank participants.

DesignCross-sectional analysis of UK Biobank diffusion MRI data using propensity score matching to compare females with TBI to controls.

MethodsWe analyzed diffusion MRI data from females with and without TBI. Corpus callosum fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), and isotropic volume fraction (ISOVF) were assessed. TBI effects were examined across pre- and post-menopausal groups, accounting for HRT use, duration, and reproductive factors.

ResultsFemales with TBI (n=363) exhibited widespread corpus callosum alterations compared to propensity-matched controls (n=10,128), with reduced FA across all regions (genu: {beta}=-0.006, FDR p=0.027; body: {beta}=-0.006, FDR p=0.002; splenium: {beta}=-0.004, FDR p=0.009) and elevated MD in anterior regions (genu: FDR p=0.001; body: FDR p=0.002). TBI sustained before menopause was associated with significantly lower splenium FA ({beta}=-0.010, p=0.031) and higher body MD ({beta}=0.000019, p=0.021) compared with TBI sustained after menopause and controls. HRT use did not modify TBI-related alterations in primary analyses. However, among HRT users (n=3,108), a significant TBIxduration interaction emerged for genu MD ({beta}=2.00x10-6, p=0.0295), indicating that the effect of HRT duration on white matter microstructure differed between TBI cases and healthy females. Reproductive factors (parity, reproductive lifespan) independently predicted some white matter measures but did not confound TBI, menopause timing, or HRT associations.

ConclusionsTBI-related white matter changes in females are influenced by menopause timing and hormonal exposure, with HRT effects dependent on duration and injury context. These findings highlight the importance of sex- and hormone-specific approaches in TBI research and the need for longitudinal studies to clarify mechanisms and potential interventions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Espana-Irla, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tinney, E. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Perko, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nwakamma, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Noble, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Morris, T. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.26.701743</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Traumatic Brain Injury Associated with Altered Corpus Callosum Microstructure in Females: Exploring the Roles of Menopause Timing and Hormone Therapy in UK Biobank]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.26.701882v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Dynamic conformational ensembles of soluble Tau encode neuronal toxicity prior to aggregation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.26.701882v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Tau aggregation is a defining feature of Alzheimers disease and related tauopathies, yet the conformational states of Tau in neurons prior to aggregation remain poorly understood. Existing structural models are derived largely from fibrillar assemblies and provide limited insight into the dynamic, soluble Tau species that initiate pathology. Here, we combine hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry with super-resolution imaging and neuronal models to define the conformational ensemble of soluble Tau under physiological and disease-relevant conditions. We show that soluble Tau populates distinct, dynamic conformations characterized by regional stabilization and long-range intramolecular interactions that are invisible to fibril-based structures. Disease-associated perturbations selectively remodel these conformational ensembles, exposing aggregation-prone regions and altering Tau subcellular organization in neurons. Notably, these Tau species inhibit axonal transport, which is essential for neuronal health, linking specific ensemble states to neuronal toxicity. These findings establish soluble Tau conformation as a dynamic, regulatable state that precedes aggregation and encodes disease relevance. By defining the structural logic of Tau before fibril formation, this work provides a framework for understanding early tauopathy mechanisms and for targeting Tau pathology at its earliest stages.

SUMMARYTau pathology is a hallmark of Alzheimers disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRDs). Although Tau is often described as intrinsically disordered, it is a dynamic protein with distinct but poorly defined conformations. Here we conduct a systematic time-resolved structure-function analysis of normal and pathologic Tau, including hyperphosphorylated, mutant Tau, and posttranslational-modification-mimetic Tau. To characterize dynamic conformational changes of Tau, we combined state-of-the-art hydrogen deuterium exchange mass spectrometry with structured illumination microscopy, demonstrating a novel Tau-MT binding mode: "dynamic oscillation". To correlate Tau structure with neuronal function, we evaluated axonal transport as a sensitive readout of neuronal health. Many toxic Tau forms share a common signature of increased exposure of the N-terminal phosphate activating domain (PAD) in vitro and in vivo. Aberrant exposure of PAD correlates with Tau pathology and axonal transport defects. Tau phosphorylation at S262 alone is sufficient to alter Tau-microtubule interactions beyond R1-R4 motifs, globally changing Tau conformation, disrupting "dynamic oscillation" on MTs, and inhibiting axonal transport. Frontotemporal dementia-associated P301L-Tau remains associated with microtubules but also inhibits axonal transport. Our results reveal a well-defined conformation of soluble WT Tau in neurons and its highly dynamic interaction with microtubules, altered by AD/ADRD-Tau forms. Our multidisciplinary approach comprising biochemical manipulations, innovative MS tools, advanced microscopy, cellular assays, and mouse and human data pair Tau conformations with distinct neuronal functions and pathologies in health and disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Georgescauld, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okekenwa, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Boyd, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Donahue, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Quittot, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dickson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fan, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brady, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blackston, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hyman, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Song, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.26.701882</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Dynamic conformational ensembles of soluble Tau encode neuronal toxicity prior to aggregation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.26.701909v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Circuit-Specific Resting-State fMRI Signatures for Stratifying First-Episode Major Depressive Disorder and Predicting Recurrence Risk 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.26.701909v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundDepression is biologically heterogeneous, and first-episode depression (FED) carries a high risk of recurrence that is poorly captured by symptom-based assessment. Early identification of patients likely to relapse, as well as reliable identification of those unlikely to relapse, is needed to support personalized intervention and efficient allocation of care.

MethodsWe developed a neurocomputational framework to infer recurrence risk from resting-state fMRI functional connectivity. The framework combines a Convolutional Filtering Autoencoder (CFAE) with a k-medoids clustering algorithm (FED-kMC) to derive neurofunctional FED subtypes, followed by a Manifold Sheaves-based Ensemble Support Vector Machine (MST-LVSVM) to estimate individual-level recurrence risk and define an interpretable decision boundary. Circuit-level analyses were then used to localize connectivity pathways associated with high relapse risk.

ResultsThe framework identified two neurofunctionally distinct FED subtypes with divergent recurrence trajectories and achieved an external validation accuracy of 82.61% for recurrence risk prediction. Circuit analyses highlighted dysfunction within the Medial Superior Frontal Gyrus-Hippocampus and Angular Gyrus-Precuneus pathways as neural correlates of high relapse risk, together with a decision boundary enabling early-stage risk stratification.

ConclusionsIntegrating connectome-derived, circuit-level information with subtype-aware machine learning may support proactive identification of FED patients at elevated recurrence risk and facilitate targeted early interventions, bridging connectome-level analysis and clinical decision-making.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qiu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.26.701909</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Circuit-Specific Resting-State fMRI Signatures for Stratifying First-Episode Major Depressive Disorder and Predicting Recurrence Risk]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.27.702031v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SAGA1 and SAGA2 localize the starch sheath to the pyrenoid in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.27.702031v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Most algae enhance their CO2 assimilation by concentrating CO2 within the pyrenoid, a biomolecular condensate that contains the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco. Many pyrenoids are surrounded by a starch sheath that is thought to slow the escape of CO2 from the pyrenoid, but how the starch sheath is localized to the pyrenoid remains poorly understood. Here, in the leading model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, we find that the protein SAGA2 is necessary for early pyrenoid starch sheath biogenesis and works redundantly with its homolog, SAGA1, to localize the starch sheath to the pyrenoid. SAGA2 and SAGA1 were enriched in different regions of the pyrenoid-starch sheath interface, suggesting that they play complementary roles. Both saga2 and saga1 mutants showed defects in starch sheath coverage early during pyrenoid formation that were improved at a later timepoint. Strikingly, a saga1;saga2 double mutant did not have a starch sheath around the pyrenoid and showed decreased overall starch content. SAGA1 and SAGA2 starch-binding domains bound to starch, the starch mimic molecule {beta}-cyclodextrin, and the starch precursor molecule maltoheptaose, suggesting a role for SAGA1 and SAGA2 in starch granule initiation. We propose a model where SAGA1 and SAGA2 each locally prime starch sheath initiation in a distinct region of the pyrenoid surface by enriching starch precursor molecules around the pyrenoid. These findings advance the understanding of algal starch sheath biogenesis and provide insights into the associations between biomolecular condensates and other cellular structures.

Significance StatementEukaryotic algae enhance their carbon assimilation using an organelle called the pyrenoid, where concentrated CO2 is supplied to the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco. In many algae, a starch sheath surrounding the pyrenoid is thought to enhance CO2 fixation, but how starch is localized to pyrenoids is unknown. Here, we show that two proteins, SAGA1 and SAGA2, each bind to starch precursor molecules and redundantly localize starch to the pyrenoid in the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Our results suggest that SAGA1 and SAGA2 promote starch sheath initiation at the pyrenoid, rather than merely tethering starch, as previously thought. This work advances the understanding of the proteins and molecular mechanisms involved in pyrenoid starch sheath biogenesis and lays the foundations for their further study.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Crans, V. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burton, M. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garde, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jonikas, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-01-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.27.702031</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SAGA1 and SAGA2 localize the starch sheath to the pyrenoid in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-01-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.30.702868v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cortex-specific inversion of visual responses during sleep 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.30.702868v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
During sleep, we functionally disengage from our external environment. Our eyes close, profoundly reducing visual input to the brain. However, some light passes through the eyelid, and luminance changes are perceived even through closed eyes during wakefulness. Although the relay of sensory information is thought to be gated by the thalamus during sleep, sensory information can still reach the cortex. To elucidate how visual inputs are modulated at each stage of thalamic and cortical processing during sleep, we used simultaneous EEG-fMRI while presenting luminance-modulated visual stimuli to sleeping humans. We discovered that responses to light remained intact in the visual thalamus during N1 and N2 sleep. However, stimulus-evoked responses in early visual cortex were profoundly suppressed, exhibiting an inverted pattern in which high-intensity visual stimulation evoked visual cortical deactivation. These findings suggest a cortical mechanism where inhibitory circuits regulate stimulus-driven deactivation in visual cortex, facilitating sensory isolation during early stages of sleep.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Cicero, N. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klimova, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vinke, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ling, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lewis, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-02</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.30.702868</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cortex-specific inversion of visual responses during sleep]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-02</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.31.701171v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Thermodynamic Insights into the WT and Y220C TP53 DBDs Reveals that the Oncogenic Y220C Variant is a Loss of Function Mutation for Zn2+-binding at Physiological Temperature 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.31.701171v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
We present evidence of previously unrecognized allosteric connectivity across the TP53 DNA binding domain (DBD). Specifically, we have found evidence of explicit influence on the Zn2+-binding site from the region surrounding the hotspot Y220C mutation. This allosteric connectivity is intertwined with a temperature-dependent destabilization of Zn2+ binding in both the WT and Y220C DBDs. Our studies indicate that the Y220C mutation exacerbates this temperature-dependent destabilization of Zn2+-binding to result in overall destabilization of the Y220C variant. We provide detailed thermodynamic evidence that Rezatapopt, a small molecule reactivator of the Y220C DBD, engages Y220C through two distinct thermodynamic pathways and restores WT-level Zn2+-affinity to this oncogenic variant. A series of thermodynamic models describing the WT and Y220C conformational landscapes, as well as the Rezatapopt binding mechanisms, are proposed.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Stuckey, J. I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vivat, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dickson, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Setser, J. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cremers, C. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilson, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peterle, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wilcken, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rohan, E. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chenail, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Audia, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sims, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.01.31.701171</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Thermodynamic Insights into the WT and Y220C TP53 DBDs Reveals that the Oncogenic Y220C Variant is a Loss of Function Mutation for Zn2+-binding at Physiological Temperature]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.01.703083v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Early detection of sudden transitions in Notch signalling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.01.703083v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Identifying sudden transitions during phenotypic decision-making of complex biological systems can be crucial for our ability to control a cellular state. Yet, prior determination of these sudden transitions or tipping points remains challenging, as biological systems often exhibit only subtle early changes, which are often masked by inherent noise or rapid transition dynamics. Using Notch signaling as a model, we systematically analyze dynamical transitions in Notch-Delta (ND), Notch-Delta-Jagged (NDJ), and Fringe-mediated NDJ systems for both one and two-cell contexts. In the one-cell ND system, critical slowing down (CSD)-based early warning signals (EWSs) reliably capture transitions between sender (S) and receiver (R) states and remain robust to variation in forcing rate. We further find that flickering is a precursor to transitions in one-cell NDJ system. In contrast, flickering does not occur in the two-cell Notch model due to the presence of a supercritical bifurcation. Our analysis also offers insight into how NICD (Notch Intracellular Domain)-driven and Fringe-mediated asymmetries, along with the strength of external signals, control the emergence of flickering. Overall, this study identifies sudden transitions in Notch signaling under demographic noise and can be extended to other noisy biological systems, with potential applications in drug development and targeted therapeutic interventions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tikader, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sarkar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sinha, S. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jolly, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dutta, P. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-03</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.01.703083</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Early detection of sudden transitions in Notch signalling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-03</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.703403v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
eScreen: a deep learning framework for functionally decoding the regulatory genome at single-nucleotide resolution 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.703403v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The human genome is densely populated with cis-regulatory elements (CREs), yet deciphering their functional regulatory syntax and combinational logic remains a fundamental challenge. Here, we integrate 379 genome-scale CRISPR screen experiments, encompassing 21 million perturbations across 23 cell types, to construct a compendium of 41,239 high-confidence functional CREs from 530,527 candidates. Leveraging this resource, we develop eScreen, a deep learning model built on the StripedHyena2 architecture to functionally decode the regulatory genome at single-nucleotide resolution. eScreen achieves three primary functions: (1) predicts genome-wide cell-type-specific CRE functional activity with high accuracy, outperforming existing models; (2) provides mechanistic interpretation of regulatory syntax at single-nucleotide resolution; (3) dissects the functional organization of enhancer clusters through in silico perturbation analysis. We perform multiple independent CRISPR knockout, CRISPR interference (CRISPRi), and base editing screens to validate these functions of eScreen both at scale and on individual cases. Furthermore, we provide an interactive web server (https://escreen.huanglabxmu.com/) for the community to access the integrated CRISPR screen resources and eScreen functions. Collectively, our work establishes a highly precise and convenient tool to decode the causal effects of the regulatory genome.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Luo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Han, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liang, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Niang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Li, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peng, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fei, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.02.703403</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[eScreen: a deep learning framework for functionally decoding the regulatory genome at single-nucleotide resolution]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.703411v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A biophysical framework for accurately identifying antigen single-amino acid escape variants and corresponding variant-specific compensatory TCR sequences 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.703411v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The impact of single amino acid substitution on T-cell receptor (TCR) recognition is central to understanding the molecular determinants of TCR specificity and degeneracy during viral mutational escape, cancer recognition, and autoimmunity. In this study, we developed a biophysics-informed computational approach integrating experimental alanine-scan mutagenesis data from the autoimmune-associated ALWGPDPAAA peptide bound to HLA-A*02:01 together with coarse-grained structural modeling. Our approach reconstructs the energetics and structural determinants underpinning the observed loss of recognition by the diabetogenic 1E6 TCR upon single-point mutations, specifically at the critical Pro5 and Asp6 residues. Leveraging the computational models ability to incorporate multiple structural templates into binding predictions, this approach quantitatively reproduces experimentally measured affinity disruptions. Additionally, we apply our approach to identify potential compensatory interactions capable of restoring binding affinity through alternative residue interactions. This integrative computational framework contributes a strategy for inferring TCR-peptide binding energetics at the single amino acid level, guiding the rational design of peptide-based immunotherapeutics, and predicting the functional impacts of clinically relevant peptide variants.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ghoreyshi, Z. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Levine, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Onuchic, J. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>George, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-05</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.02.703411</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A biophysical framework for accurately identifying antigen single-amino acid escape variants and corresponding variant-specific compensatory TCR sequences]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-05</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.04.703909v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ribociclib as a Potential Multi-Target Inhibitor of Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines: An In Silico Investigation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.04.703909v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ribociclib, a selective cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor, is approved as a first-line therapy for HR-positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer. Emerging evidence suggests that Ribociclib may exert immunomodulatory effects. However, its role in cytokine regulation remains largely unexplored. This study presents a comprehensive in silico investigation of Ribociclibs interactions with eight key pro-inflammatory cytokines--IL-6, TNF-, IL-17A, IL-17F, IL-17A/F, IL-1{beta}, MCP-1, and IFN-{gamma}. Computational assessments included molecular docking, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, MM-GBSA binding free energy calculations, principal component analysis (PCA), and dynamic cross-correlation matrix (DCCM) analyses. Molecular docking and MD simulations indicated strong and stable complex formation with TNF-, IL-6, MCP-1, IL-1{beta}, and IL-17A/F. MM-GBSA results further showed that Ribociclib formed the most stable complexes with IL-17A/F ({Delta}Gbind = -25.94 kcal/mol) and MCP-1 ({Delta}Gbind = -25.88 kcal/mol), comparable to binding with the CDK-6 ({Delta}Gbind = -36.23 kcal/mol) control protein. PCA and DCCM analyses further supported the stabilizing influence of Ribociclib on these cytokine conformations. Moderate interactions were observed with TNF-, IL-6, and IFN-{gamma}. Collectively, these findings suggest that Ribociclib may function as a multi-target inhibitor capable of modulating diverse inflammatory pathways, providing a computational foundation for its repurposing as a cost-effective anti-inflammatory therapeutic candidate.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rahman, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ornob, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-07</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.04.703909</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ribociclib as a Potential Multi-Target Inhibitor of Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines: An In Silico Investigation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-07</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.05.704053v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The Role of Retinal Flow in Walking 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.05.704053v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Both visual direction and optic flow have been implicated in walking towards a goal, in experiments that use prisms to alter visual direction. However, prisms bias retinal flow patterns in ways that may affect balance. This will alter foot placement, and indirectly, a walkers path. We used a prism manipulation in virtual reality for goal-directed walking, where we manipulated the location of texture-defined flow as well as direction of gaze. The addition of texture straightened paths, but primarily when it provided flow on the ground plane. Texture only on the ground produced straightening comparable to full-scene texture, whereas wall-only texture produced little straightening. This reveals a disproportionate contribution of motion generated on the ground plane to control locomotion, potentially reflecting higher retinal speeds and the prism-induced rotations in the lower visual field. This suggests that, when visual direction is manipulated by a prism, trajectories might result from unexpected motion patterns that activate a balance response, leading to compensatory foot placement. Thus trajectories may be shaped by complex interactions between goal direction, gaze, and local retinal motion patterns.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Powell, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Panfili, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oh, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matthis, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hayhoe, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.05.704053</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The Role of Retinal Flow in Walking]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.06.704517v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
How the non-motile kinesin KIF7 adapts conserved kinesin principles for itsfunction in Hedgehog signaling 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.06.704517v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
KIF7 is an atypical, non-motile kinesin that regulates Hedgehog signaling by concentrating GLI transcription factors at the cilium tip. How canonical kinesin principles for intracellular transport are repurposed to support KIF7s function as a signaling scaffold remains unclear. KIF7 exists in an autoinhibited state that is relieved by GLI binding, promoting microtubule association. We examined this regulatory mechanism by combining HDX-MS and AlphaFold modeling of a minimal KIF7 dimer, both alone and in complex with the GLI2 zinc-finger domain. Our HDX-MS data indicate that the highly negatively charged neck-coil dimerization domain of KIF7, which serves as the GLI2-binding site, is intramolecularly protected in the absence of GLI2. Consistent with this, AlphaFold models suggest that the motor domain folds back onto the neck-coil via KIF7s unusually long neck-linker, sterically occluding the microtubule-binding interface. This occurs through a mechanism conceptually analogous to, but structurally distinct from, autoinhibition in motile kinesins. GLI2 binding to the KIF7 neck-coil displaces the motor domain and induces allosteric changes that propagate to the microtubule-binding surface, thereby activating microtubule binding. ATP turnover further modulates KIF7s microtubule binding-unbinding equilibrium. Together, these findings reveal how a kinesin is adapted for a non-motile function as a scaffold in Hedgehog signaling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Haque, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Srinivasu, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Subramanian, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.06.704517</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[How the non-motile kinesin KIF7 adapts conserved kinesin principles for itsfunction in Hedgehog signaling]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704566v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
When attention falters: brain, breathing, and behavioral signals of lapses in interoceptive attention 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704566v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mind{square}body practices like meditation and yoga, which are widely used to support mental health, involve paying attention to internal bodily sensations like the breath. During these practices, individuals often report "interoceptive lapses," moments when attention drifts away from the body. While lapses in attention to the external world have been widely studied, far less is known about physiological and neural signals that temporally predict when attention to internal sensations falters. Interoceptive lapses may share markers with exteroceptive attention lapses--such as reaction time variability and changes in default-mode network (DMN) connectivity--but may also depend on distinct brain systems and breathing physiology. To test these possibilities, we examined behavioral, physiological and neural changes preceding lapses in a convenience sample of 93 adolescents with depressive symptoms. Participants performed a 20-minute breath counting task in the fMRI scanner with simultaneous breath recordings. Lapses were defined as moments when counting errors occurred. The sample was split into a training and validation sample, and machine learning models predicting attentional lapses were tested. The strongest predictors were timing and variability of button responses (AUCs > 0.75). Breathing variability and breathing-behavior coupling showed smaller but generalizable predictive value (AUCs < 0.65). Whole-brain connectivity models also predicted lapses (AUC {approx} 0.65) and incorporated regions within the DMN, dorsal, and ventral attention networks--overlapping with systems implicated in exteroceptive attention-- as well as the somatomotor network. Further, models that included brain connectivity marginally outperformed behavior-only models. Together, these findings suggest that interoceptive lapses reflect both shared mechanisms with exteroceptive attention failures and additional contributions from brain systems involved in bodily representation and sensory pathways. Although generalizability is limited by the clinical sample and absence of an exteroceptive comparison task, these results highlight candidate brain-body markers of interoceptive attention that may inform real-time monitoring during mind-body interventions and improve understanding of interoceptive disturbance in affective disorders.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Treves, I. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shaffer, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Decker, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jaffe, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tierney, A. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Auerbach, R. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Webb, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.07.704566</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[When attention falters: brain, breathing, and behavioral signals of lapses in interoceptive attention]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.09.704880v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Cell jamming transition is regulated by mitochondrial pyruvate transport and endocytosis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.09.704880v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Epithelial tissues undergo dynamic transitions between fluid-like collective motion and mechanically jammed states during development, injury repair, and disease progression. However, the cellular programs that drive these transitions and regulate collective behavior remain unclear. Using a controlled crowding model integrated with live-cell imaging and time-resolved multi-omics, we demonstrate that epithelial crowding triggers early metabolic changes characterized by increased mitochondrial pyruvate anaplerosis that precedes the jamming transition. Functional inhibition of mitochondrial pyruvate import is sufficient to sustain collective cell motility, impeding jamming transition in crowded cells. This unjammed state is driven by enhanced cytoskeletal remodeling and requires RhoA-myosin II activity. Mechanistically, we show that elevated cytoskeletal signaling promotes macropinocytic uptake, which serves as a required feedback loop to maintain motility. These findings identify mitochondrial pyruvate utilization as a key regulator that links metabolic remodeling to the endocytic control of epithelial fluidity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bermudez, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Latham, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diaz, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yan, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bi, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldstein, A. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hu, J. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, N. Y. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.09.704880</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Cell jamming transition is regulated by mitochondrial pyruvate transport and endocytosis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.10.705117v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
4,5-dihydroxyhexanoic acid is a robust circulating and urine marker of mitochondrial disease and its severity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.10.705117v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Management of patients with mitochondrial respiratory chain diseases is challenging, in part because of our incomplete understanding of pathogenesis and a lack of biomarkers. Unknown metabolites account for >90% of detected features in modern metabolomics experiments and hold immense untapped promise for new basic and biomedical research. We recently used mass spectrometry-based metabolomics to identify and validate 19 circulating blood-based biomarkers for patients with the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) m.3243A>G pathogenic variant, which is the most frequent cause of the mitochondrial disorder MELAS (mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes). However, the most significantly changing biomarker corresponded to an "unknown" metabolite. Here, we combine cheminformatics with analytical chemistry and identify that feature as 4,5-dihydroxyhexanoic acid (4,5-DHHA), a metabolite previously associated with inherited defects of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) catabolism, but with no prior links to mitochondrial respiratory chain disorders. We validate this finding in an independent MELAS cohort and further show that 4,5-DHHA levels correlate with disease severity and are elevated in patients with other forms of mitochondrial disease and sepsis. Furthermore, brain 4,5-DHHA levels were elevated in two genetic mouse models of mitochondrial disease. In vitro and tissue culture experiments indicate that 4,5-DHHA is generated when the GABA catabolite succinic semialdehyde reacts with an intermediate of the pyruvate dehydrogenase reaction and is sensitive to mitochondrial complex I function. Our work identifies 4,5-DHHA as a robust plasma and urine marker of mitochondrial dysfunction in humans and reveals new connections between the respiratory chain and GABA metabolism.

Significance StatementInborn errors of the mitochondrial respiratory chain cause severe, progressive diseases, yet effective treatments and biomarkers remain limited. Modern metabolomics detects thousands of molecules in biofluids, but the vast majority are unidentified. In this study, we investigate the most significantly altered blood metabolite in patients with the most common mitochondrial disease - MELAS (mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes) - and identify it as an 4,5-dihydroxyhexanoic acid (4,5-DHHA). We show that 4,5-DHHA is reproducibly elevated and correlates with severity. Levels are increased across multiple mitochondrial disorders as well as in sepsis and rise when respiratory chain function is impaired. These findings establish 4,5-DHHA as a promising biomarker of mitochondrial dysfunction and reveal a link to dysregulated GABA metabolism.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Skinner, O. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Miranda, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Struhl, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Walker, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schleifer, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Henke, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clardy, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hirano, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Vivo, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Schon, E. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engelstad, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siegmund, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laprise, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Des Rosiers, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sharma, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mootha, V. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.10.705117</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[4,5-dihydroxyhexanoic acid is a robust circulating and urine marker of mitochondrial disease and its severity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.14.705848v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A scalable approach to resolving variants of uncertain significance 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.14.705848v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Over 90% of missense variants across [~]4,000 disease-associated genes are variants of uncertain significance (VUS). Experimental variant effect measurements provide critical evidence about pathogenicity and inform disease biology, but most variants lack data and clinical translation has been limited. The Impact of Genomic Variation on Function Consortium generated experimental data for 62,215 variants across ten genes using multiplexed assays and 1,407 variants across 163 genes using arrayed assays, curated 193,139 additional community-generated variant effect measurements across 30 additional genes, and developed automated calibration methods for translating experimental data and variant effect predictions into clinical evidence. To reduce current VUS, we developed a scalable workflow using only experimental and predictive evidence, enabling reclassification of 75% of the 16,115 VUS in these genes as pathogenic or benign with <1% error. To minimize future VUS, we analyzed >90,000 unobserved variants; 62% had enough evidence to be "preclassified" as pathogenic or benign. We validated our data, evidence and classifications using All of Us and created interactive resources to enable clinical use of the calibrated data. Thus, for 40 genes, representing 1% of the clinical genome, we resolve most existing VUS and future variants, illustrating how systematic use of scalable evidence can empower genomic medicine.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Tejura, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McEwen, A. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stewart, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sverchkov, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Laval, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woo, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeiberg, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shen, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fayer, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stone, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Smith, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Casadei, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, Z. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Snyder, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capodanno, B. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gupta, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Benazouz, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Heidl, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muffley, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dong, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hitz, B. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gabdank, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Da, E. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Best, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grindstaff, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reinhart, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rodriguez-Salas, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seid, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vandi, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wenman, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wheelock, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pendyala, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holmes, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hosokai, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tixhon, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reno, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ewald, J. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spirohn-Fitzgerald, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teelucksingh, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hao, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Z. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Haghighi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hamid, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-15</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.14.705848</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A scalable approach to resolving variants of uncertain significance]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-15</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.13.705629v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Proximity-Informed Graph Learning Defines Spatial Protein Communities for Tumor-Associated Proximity Antigen Discovery 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.13.705629v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The spatial organization of membrane proteins is an underexplored dimension of cell-surface biology. Spatial proximity shapes cellular function and therapeutic targetability, yet efforts to identify tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) have largely focused on expression alone. Here, we developed an industrialized surface-protein proximity mapping workflow to interrogate TAAs within their membrane microenvironments. In the process, we generated 248 proximity maps across 12 receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and 28 tumor cell systems. This proximity atlas enabled two advances: first, MetaMap, a correlation-based analytical framework that defines spatial protein communities and infers non-targeted proximal proteins from reproducible proximity signatures; and second, tumor-associated proximity antigens (TAPAs), a conceptual class of co-targets defined by disease-specific spatial proximity to TAAs rather than expression alone. Applying these proximity-derived relationships within a multimodal prioritization framework, we identified and validated an EGFRxCDCP1 TAA-TAPA pair that enhanced tumor cell killing across therapeutic modalities. By integrating spatial organization with multimodal data, this work expands the design space for precision-guided therapeutic strategies.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Scandore, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malone, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>May, C. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>de Regt, A. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Guernsey, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ma, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dephoure, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Setter, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Howell, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Johnson, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farr, C. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Romero, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vignale, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vittum, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dawson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Habtetsion, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nardi, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woodruff, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mathay, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swanson, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ton, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Farahani, P. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gene, R. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Misurelli, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caldwell, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hornsby, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gavin, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Klock, H. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eryilmaz, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Holland, P. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lesley, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Oslund, R. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fadeyi, O. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-16</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.13.705629</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Proximity-Informed Graph Learning Defines Spatial Protein Communities for Tumor-Associated Proximity Antigen Discovery]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-16</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.14.705914v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ancestry-specific performance of variant effect predictors in clinical variant classification 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.14.705914v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Predicting the effects of genetic variants and assessing prediction performance are key computational tasks in genomic medicine. It has been shown that well-calibrated variant effect predictors can be reliably used as evidence towards establishing pathogenicity (or benignity) of missense variants, thereby rendering these variants suitable for use in (or exclusion from) the genetic diagnosis of rare Mendelian conditions. However, most predictors have been trained or calibrated on data that may not be sufficiently representative to lead to similar performance across all genetic ancestries. This raises questions about the responsible deployment of these tools to improve human health. To better understand the utility of computational predictors, we set out to assess their ancestry-specific performance in terms of accuracy and evidence strength according to the ACMG/AMP guidelines. First, we determined that the expected count of rare variants in an individuals genome and the allele frequency distribution of these variants are the key confounders when evaluating a predictors performance across different genetic ancestries. Second, we found that a predictors accuracy itself inversely correlates with the allele frequency of the rare variant. After stratifying according to allele frequency, we show that established methods for predicting the pathogenicity of missense variants have comparable performance levels across major ancestry groups. Our results therefore support the wide deployment of such models in the context of genetic diagnosis and related applications.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hoffing, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zeiberg, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stenton, S. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mort, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cooper, D. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hahn, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Donnell-Luria, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ward, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.14.705914</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ancestry-specific performance of variant effect predictors in clinical variant classification]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.15.706044v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Human Cerebral Cortex Organization Characterized by Functional PET-FDG "Metabolic Connectivity" 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.15.706044v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
PurposeIn this study, we characterize the spatiotemporal organization of resting-state metabolic connectivity (RSMC) in the human brain, as measured by [18F]- fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) functional PET (fPET-FDG). We examine the relationship between RSMC organization and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) derived from functional magnetic resonance imaging and other known cortical organizational principles.

MethodsResting-state fPET-FDG data from 24 individuals were obtained from a publicly available repository. We characterized local metabolic organization using connectivity-based boundary mapping, with adaptations to account for the low signal-to-noise ratio of fPET-FDG data. We then estimated global metabolic organization through community detection-based network and principal gradient analyses. Furthermore, we examined how metabolic connectivity is shaped by temporal-frequency-specific components of fPET-FDG signal. Finally, we contextualized metabolic organization by relating metabolic gradients to anatomical, functional, and energetic reference measures.

ResultsAt the local scale, boundary mapping results indicated structured transitions shaped by a combination of both fast and slow fPET-FDG signals, partly overlapping with RSFC boundary maps. Globally, RSMC analyses revealed a robust metabolic structure organized along a superior-inferior cortical gradient. This pattern remained consistent across network community detection and principal gradient analyses and was primarily driven by low-frequency, minute-scale fPET-FDG dynamics. The identified large-scale metabolic profile aligns closely with several known anatomical and energetic constraints.

ConclusionThis study characterizes the spatiotemporal organizational principles of RSMC, deepening insight into the brains energetic framework and providing a basis for future cognitive and clinical investigations of metabolic connectivity organization.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Du, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coursey, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jamadar, S. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nolin, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wey, H.-Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Polimeni, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Price, J. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-17</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.15.706044</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Human Cerebral Cortex Organization Characterized by Functional PET-FDG "Metabolic Connectivity"]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-17</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.19.706790v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A druggable redox switch on SHP1 controls macrophage inflammation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.19.706790v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Immunological proteins are major disease targets, yet most remain undrugged. Post-translational redox modification of cysteine residues has emerged as an important mode of immune cell regulation, particularly in macrophage cytokine responses. Here, we develop a strategy for systematic discovery and small-molecule functionalization of redox-regulated cysteines on immunological proteins. Using deep redox proteomics, we annotate 788 in vivo redox-regulated cysteines across diverse immune-relevant protein domains. We demonstrate how these sites enable cysteine-directed pharmacology through discovery of a novel cysteine activation site on the immune regulator SHP1. Targeting Cys102, we develop a highly selective covalent agonist, SCA, which binds the N-SH2 domain to relieve autoinhibition and activate SHP1. In mouse and human macrophages, SCA selectively engages SHP1 Cys102, antagonizing IRAK signaling and LPS-induced pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Together, this work identifies a druggable cysteine redox switch controlling macrophage cytokine responses and provides a compendium of redox-regulated sites for therapeutic development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Ng, M. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nix, M. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Du, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Davidek, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burger, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Toenjes, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wei, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seo, H.-S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dhe-Paganon, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mills, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Che, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gray, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chouchani, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.19.706790</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A druggable redox switch on SHP1 controls macrophage inflammation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.19.706804v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
In Silico Identification of Aminoadipate Semialdehyde Synthase (AASS) as a Novel Prognostic Biomarker in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.19.706804v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype that lacks effective targeted therapies. This study aimed to identify robust prognostic biomarkers by integrating network biology with machine learning (ML) approaches. TNBC expression cohorts were analysed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and crucial gene clusters via limma and Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA). In results, 579 DEGs were identified, and network analysis revealed two TNBC-associated modules. Overlapping determined 208 genes enriched in cell-cycle and mitotic-regulation pathways. To identify candidate biomarkers, protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks and ML feature selection techniques, including support vector machine with recursive feature elimination module (SVM-RFE) and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression, were performed. The Kaplan-Meier (KM) analysis revealed AASS and CCNA2 were favourable prognostic markers, whereas CXCL8, SPP1, and CCNB1 were poor prognostic markers. Multi-level validation and immune-subtype analysis were carried out, revealing AASS as a novel TNBC-associated metabolic tumour suppressor.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Majeed, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Akram, M. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tariq, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-20</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.19.706804</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[In Silico Identification of Aminoadipate Semialdehyde Synthase (AASS) as a Novel Prognostic Biomarker in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-20</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.20.707046v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Magnesium as a Conformational Gatekeeper of KRAS: Structural Dynamics and Therapeutic Implications 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.20.707046v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Magnesium serves as an essential cofactor for small GTPases, yet its structural role in regulating KRAS conformational dynamics and nucleotide exchange remains poorly understood. Here, we combine hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS), native mass spectrometry, and functional assays to elucidate how Mg2+ stabilizes the KRAS conformational ensemble and constrains transitions between GDP- and GTP-bound states. Depletion of Mg2+ triggers widespread increases in structural dynamics throughout KRAS--spanning the p-loop, 1-helix, switch I, nucleotide-binding region, and distal helices--revealing a global loosening of the protein fold that favors an open, nucleotide exchange-competent state. Mg2+ titration experiments demonstrate that individual structural elements exhibit distinct Mg2+ dependencies: the p-loop and 1-helix recover native dynamics at micromolar concentrations, whereas switch I requires millimolar levels, underscoring its exceptionally high sensitivity to Mg2+ for structural stabilization. KRAS bound to the catalytic domain of exchange factor SOS1 displays an HDX signature closely resembling the Mg2+-free state, indicating that SOS1 promotes nucleotide exchange by transiently perturbing Mg2+ coordination while simultaneously stabilizing switch I. Consistently, phosphomimetic KRAS S17E variant, which disrupts a critical Mg2+-coordinating residue, exhibits pronounced global destabilization--reinforcing the central importance of Mg2+ in maintaining structural integrity. Taken together our findings show that Mg2+ acts as a master regulator of KRAS structural dynamics and reveal Mg2+-sensitive hotspots that might represent promising targets for next-generation KRAS therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Srinivasu, B. Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Damerla, T. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stec, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Engen, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Westover, K. d.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wales, T. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.20.707046</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Magnesium as a Conformational Gatekeeper of KRAS: Structural Dynamics and Therapeutic Implications]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.23.707537v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rational Design Reveals Structural Plasticity of the CsgA β-Solenoid Enabling Programmable Autogenic Engineered Living Materials 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.23.707537v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Microbial functional amyloids play central roles in biofilm formation and serve as foundational building blocks for autogenic engineered living materials (ELM), yet the structural design space governing their assembly and stability remains poorly defined. In Escherichia coli, the {beta}-solenoid protein CsgA functions as a canonical extracellular matrix scaffold, but prior engineering efforts have primarily focused on terminal functionalization rather than modification of the {beta}-solenoid core itself. Here, inspired by the evolutionary diversification of CsgA-like proteins, which expands along the vertical fiber axis, we explore a second orthogonal axis of structural plasticity: the horizontal dimension of the {beta}-solenoid. We rationally designed a library of CsgA variants in which the length of individual {beta}-strands was systematically reduced or extended from the native seven residues to lengths spanning 3-21 residues, while preserving conserved gate residues and loop regions. Integration of AI-based structure prediction using AlphaFold2 with all-atom molecular dynamics simulations reveals that {beta}-solenoid stability arises from a balance among strand length, residue composition, and solvent interactions, thereby defining both lower and optimal bounds for nanofiber assembly. Experimental validation demonstrates that engineered Escherichia coli can secrete and assemble these CsgA variants into extracellular nanofibers through the native curli biogenesis machinery, while preserving the characteristic cross-{beta} architecture. Additionally, the CsgA {beta}-solenoid variant library translates molecular design into macroscopic ELM, with deletion variants showing an inverse relationship between stiffness and extensibility, from highly extensible 3aa to stiff, strong 5aa films. Insertion-based variants largely retain CsgA-like extensibility while enabling tunable stiffness and strength across strand lengths. Together, these findings uncover previously unrecognized structural plasticity in microbial {beta}-solenoid proteins and establish {beta}-strand length as a generalizable design parameter linking molecular architecture to nanofiber stability, with implications spanning microbial functional amyloids and the rational design of autogenic engineered living materials.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Hammad, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Swarnadeep, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Priode, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jackson, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kurowski, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manjula-Basavanna, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Deshmukh, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Duraj-Thatte, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-24</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.23.707537</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rational Design Reveals Structural Plasticity of the CsgA β-Solenoid Enabling Programmable Autogenic Engineered Living Materials]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-24</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.26.708249v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Phenotypic and Genomic Evidence of Adaptive Tracking in Thermal Tolerance of Wild Populations of an Invasive Drosophila. 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.26.708249v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Adaptive tracking is an evolutionary process in which allele frequencies and phenotypes shift in response to temporally fluctuating environments. Currently it is unclear whether adaptive tracking causes predictable evolution of complex traits such as thermal tolerance. We investigated seasonal adaptive tracking of critical thermal minimum (CTmin) and genome-wide allele frequencies over multiple years in the invasive fly Drosophila suzukii. CTmin increased throughout the growing season, showing a lag of several generations between increasing temperature and evolutionary change. Genetic analyses indicate CTmin is highly polygenic, with little overlap between alleles associated with CTmin and other seasonally fluctuating alleles. Thus, polygenic traits may track seasonal environments without leaving strong genomic signals. By contrast, there were strong seasonal genomic signatures for alleles associated with oligogenic traits as such pesticide resistance and olfactory behavior. These findings suggest that seasonal adaptive tracking shapes a broad suite of traits that contribute to D. suzukiis invasion success.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>McCabe, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gautier, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eller, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garvin, M. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCracken, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Redondo, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bergland, A. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bangerter, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nunez, J. C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Teets, N. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-02-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.02.26.708249</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Phenotypic and Genomic Evidence of Adaptive Tracking in Thermal Tolerance of Wild Populations of an Invasive Drosophila.]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-02-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.02.706684v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Beyond Fixation: Persistent Genetic Variation Under Intense Selection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.02.706684v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Understanding how and why genetic variation is maintained under sustained selection remains a central question in evolutionary genetics. Experimental evolution shows that adaptation in sexually reproducing populations is often highly polygenic, proceeding through coordinated, genome-wide allele frequency shifts from standing variation rather than classic hard sweeps. Recent explanations emphasize highly polygenic architectures, optimizing-selection, and genetic redundancy, which can slow fixation by distributing selection across many loci during adaptation. However, observations from long-term selection experiments reveal a pattern these frameworks do not fully explain: substantial genetic variation persists after hundreds of generations of intense directional selection in constant environments. Here, we use long-term experimental evolution in Drosophila melanogaster to test whether balancing-selection actively maintains genetic variation under strong life-history selection and preserves evolutionary reversibility. Longstanding populations selected for accelerated or delayed reproduction were shifted to the opposing regime, imposing age-structured fitness trade-offs. Notably, selection for early reproduction is associated with substantial loss of genetic variation, providing a stringent test of whether standing variation is truly depleted. Following reciprocal shifts, populations showed rapid phenotypic convergence toward the target regime. At the genomic level, allele-frequency trajectories were strongly antiparallel and highly repeatable across replicates, revealing coordinated polygenic responses. Relaxing long-standing early-life selection produced a pronounced rebound in genome-wide heterozygosity. Deep sequencing uncovered ultra-rare alleles at sites appearing fixed under standard coverage, indicating low-frequency functional variation persists below detection thresholds. These results suggest that substantial genetic variation can persist under intense directional selection and be rapidly redeployed when selection reverses, consistent with widespread balancing-selection.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Arnold, K. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Greenspan, Z. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Robinson, R. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pupo, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chavarin, V. V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chang, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cannell, C. O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Qi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mueller, L. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rose, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillips, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.02.706684</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Beyond Fixation: Persistent Genetic Variation Under Intense Selection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.06.710144v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The complete genome of the KOLF2.1J reference iPSC line 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.06.710144v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
While induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have gained popularity in studying neurodegenerative diseases, the heterogeneity of stem cells used across studies impacts cross-study comparison. The iPSC Neurodegenerative Disease Initiative (iNDI) selected the KOLF2.1J cell line and prioritized its use as a reference standard for studying the effects of pathogenic variants on cell biology due to its stability and neutral neurodegenerative disease genetic risk. This cell line, and its derivatives expressing over 100 variants related to Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, and other neurological diseases, are available for academic and industry access. Current genomic data analyses are limited by the use of a human reference genome that does not capture the complete genetic background of a given iPSC line. While in the future this issue may be partially mitigated by the creation of a comprehensive human pangenome, previous work has shown that generating custom genomes is of value both to characterize the variation present and to serve as a more appropriate genomic reference. Here, we generated and characterized a custom complete genome assembly from KOLF2.1J. Mapping of sequencing reads to a personalized diploid assembly results in more comprehensive mapping compared to traditional linear references (i.e GRCh38). In addition, we provide a comprehensive custom gene annotation along with isoform expression and differential methylation analyses across multiple cell types. The assembly and all additional data is browsable and publicly available. This resource will enable more accurate investigation of the KOLF2.1J cell line and any genomics data generated compared to using traditional generalized references, while also serving as a foundational approach for establishing custom reference assemblies for other high-value iPSC lines.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Alvarez Jerez, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rhie, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hebbar, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nag, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antipov, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koren, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lara, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Beilina, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hansen, N. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Arber, C. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zulueta, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wild-Crea, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Patel, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hickey, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Waltz, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Malik, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skarnes, W. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reed, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Genner, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Daida, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pantazis, C. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Grenn, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nalls, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Billingsley, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fossati, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wray, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ward, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ryten, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cookson, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paten, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Phillippy, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Blauwendraat, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-09</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.06.710144</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The complete genome of the KOLF2.1J reference iPSC line]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-09</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.06.710136v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Multi-site MRI analysis of morphometric differences in brain regions in the presence of hearing loss and tinnitus across the adult lifespan 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.06.710136v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The impact of age and hearing loss on the brain has garnered significant attention, as both factors have been implicated in the development of cognitive impairment or dementia. In this study, we investigated the impact of hearing loss and tinnitus on gray matter in the brain, while accounting for age. We used a comprehensive secondary analysis of structural MRI data obtained from multiple research sites (256 unique individuals) using voxel-based and surface-based morphology. After harmonization of this multi-site brain data, our research replicated the previously reported finding of age-related decline in total cortical volume, but there was no significant effect of either hearing loss or tinnitus on total cortical volume. When a region of interest analysis was conducted, the hippocampus emerged as the only brain region that showed a direct impact of hearing loss, after accounting for variance associated with age. This effect on hippocampal volume was evident in our sample from age 52 years onwards; when adjusted for hearing loss, the decline began at age 56 years. For the presence of tinnitus, ventral posterior cingulate gyrus showed main effects with respect to cortical volume and surface area while medial occipito-temporal gyrus and operculum of the inferior frontal gyrus showed significant main effects only with surface area. Post-hoc analysis revealed that posterior cingulate gyrus showed significantly higher volume and larger surface area in individuals with tinnitus compared to those without tinnitus. Similarly medial occipito-temporal gyrus surface area was increased whereas surface area of the inferior frontal opercular gyrus was reduced in those with tinnitus when compared to those without tinnitus. Notably, while past studies have reported that the presence of tinnitus appeared to moderate some of these effects in certain participant groups, our results suggest a more complex relationship between sensory degradation, chronic tinnitus, and brain structure in individuals across the adult lifespan.

HighlightsO_LIHearing loss and tinnitus can exacerbate regional brain atrophy in the adult lifespan.
C_LIO_LIHigh-frequency hearing loss affects auditory cortex gray matter volume to a larger degree in older age.
C_LIO_LIHearing loss may accelerate decline in hippocampal volume by about 4 years.
C_LIO_LIChronic subjective tinnitus is associated with a larger volume of cingulate cortex, increased surface area in cingulate cortex and the lingual gyrus, and decreased surface area of frontal operculum compared to controls.
C_LIO_LITinnitus-related effects on regional brain atrophy are not modified by the degree of hearing deficits.
C_LI
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Abraham, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ajmera, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leaver, A. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sutton, B. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Peelle, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Husain, F. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.06.710136</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Multi-site MRI analysis of morphometric differences in brain regions in the presence of hearing loss and tinnitus across the adult lifespan]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.09.710614v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Evaluating the Utility of a Nanoscale Flow Cytometer for Detection of Surface Proteins on HIV and Extracellular Vesicles 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.09.710614v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundFlow virometry (FV) - the application of flow cytometry to viruses - has historically been hindered by the inability of cytometers to detect particles below [~]300 nm in size. However, advances in optics and fluidics have enabled cytometers primarily designed for cells to detect viruses and extracellular vesicles (EVs) through light scatter alone. In 2024, the CytoFLEX nano was released, marketed for the detection of particles as small as 40 nm; however, its performance has yet to be compared to a conventional instrument for FV.

MethodsFV was utilized to evaluate performance of the CytoFLEX nano and a conventional flow cytometer (CytoFLEX S). Instrument scatter sensitivity was assessed using NIST beads (40-400 nm), and virus stocks [human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), human coronaviruses (HCoV)-229E and HCoV-OC43]. For fluorescence analysis, HIV virions were stained with PE- and BV421-conjugated antibodies targeting virion incorporated proteins (CD38, CD44), individually and in combination. Finally, HIV stocks were labeled with antibodies against the envelope (Env) glycoprotein and tetraspanins (CD9, CD81) to assess EVs within virus preparations.

ResultsCompared to the CytoFLEX S, the CytoFLEX nano exhibited substantially greater scatter sensitivity, reflected by up to 50-fold higher signal-to-noise ratio across NIST-traceable beads and virus samples. This enabled clearer resolution of smaller populations, including bead populations < 70 nm that were undetectable on the CytoFLEX S, as well as improved resolution across all viruses. While both instruments reliably detected stained proteins on HIV virions, the CytoFLEX nano revealed a distinct population of tetraspanin-positive EVs within HIV stocks that was undetected on the CytoFLEX S. Using GFP-tagged HIV, we identified Env+ particles lacking GFP, indicating the presence of Env on EVs.

ConclusionsThe CytoFLEX nano exhibited markedly improved scatter sensitivity compared to the CytoFLEX S, improving detection of viruses and enabling detection of EV populations that were undetectable on the conventional instrument. While both platforms performed similarly for surface protein labeling, additional consideration of spectral overlap was needed with the CytoFLEX nano in multicolor experiments. These findings highlight that the complementary strengths of each platform can be utilized to more comprehensively characterize virus and EV populations, providing new opportunities to investigate nanoparticle heterogeneity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Burnie, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ouano, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Costa, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Castrosin, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hammond, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Matthews, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tigges, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Corbett-Helaire, K. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-10</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.09.710614</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Evaluating the Utility of a Nanoscale Flow Cytometer for Detection of Surface Proteins on HIV and Extracellular Vesicles]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-10</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.09.710404v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Ion Channel Nano-Diagnostics for ER+ Breast Cancer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.09.710404v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Ion channels are pore-forming transmembrane proteins that allow ions to move down an electrochemical gradient and across the channel pore and regulate many cell functions. Among them, are the G-protein-gated inwardly-rectifying K+ channels 1 (GIRK1) that are ubiquitously expressed with major functions in the brain and heart. Interestingly, significantly higher GIRK1 expression has been found in estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer patients compared to patients with HER2+ tumors or normal patients, and that was statistically correlated with shorter survival times and metastatic potential. Herein, we report the preparation of [~]4 nm GAT1508-coated poly(ethylene glycol) gold nanoparticle (PEGylated AuNP) biomarker for ER+ breast cancer cell screening through an optical microscope. A urea-based small molecule, GAT1508, with an N-methylpyrazole benzyl group on one side and a bromo-thiophene tail on the other side, has been shown to predominantly bind GIRK1 subunits and specifically activate GIRK1/2 channels. Two derivatives of GAT1508were synthesized and characterized: an ethylamine derivative (GAT1508-EA) with a chain extension from the benzyl ring, and a propylamine derivative (GAT1508-PA) with a chain extension from the pyrazole ring. Electrophysiology (TEVC and whole-cell patch-clump) experiments as well as fluorescence studies (Thallium assay) showed that only GAT1508-PA inhibited GIRK1/2-mediated K+ currents in transfected HEK293GIRK1 cells. Docking studies showed strong binding for the propylamine GAT1508 derivative, both in the amine form (GAT1508-PA) as well as in the amide form (GAT1508-PA-EG2; coupled with PEG as in the AuNPs). GAT1508-PEG-AuNPs (GAT1508-NPs) were synthesized subsequently with [~]65 wt% metal loading. UV-Vis studies revealed the presence of the conjugated ligand at 260 nm. Flow cytometry studies showed binding of Alexa 594-labeled GAT1508-NPs in ER+ MCF-7 breast cancer cells with a strong interaction, while incubation of fixed MCF-7 cells with a GAT1508-NP solution led to optical detection of ER+ breast cancer cells, without the need of fluorescent dyes and additional amplification steps. Detection was not feasible in MDA-MB-231 cells, a triple (-) breast cell line that does not express GIRK1. This is the first study, to our knowledge, that couples nanotechnology with small molecule drug design and electrophysiology to develop ion channel-tracing molecular probes for the detection/screening of ER+ breast cancer.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Gkikas, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dadiotis, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zaka, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aly, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Logothetis, D. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.09.710404</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Ion Channel Nano-Diagnostics for ER+ Breast Cancer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.09.710598v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
MSstatsResponse: Semi-parametric statistical model enhances detection of drug-protein interactions in chemoproteomics experiments 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.09.710598v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Chemoproteomics is a popular approach for the identification of small molecule-protein interactions in biological systems. Several chemoproteomics workflows leverage functionalized chemical probes and mass spectrometry to measure protein engagement through direct protein enrichment or competition using a range of small molecule concentrations. Statistical methods for analysis of such dose-response chemoproteomics datasets are limited. For example, existing methods rely on fixed curve shapes and are sensitive to experimental variation, particularly when the number of doses or replicates is limited. Here, we present MSstatsResponse, a semi-parametric statistical framework for analyzing chemoproteomic dose-response experiments that uses isotonic regression that does not require a fixed curve shape. This approach improves the accuracy and robustness of curve fitting, target identification, and half-response estimation across diverse experimental designs. We evaluate MSstatsResponse by generating a benchmark chemoproteomic dataset that profiled the competition between the kinase-binding probe XO44 and the drug Dasatinib using three mass spectrometry acquisition strategies: data-independent acquisition, tandem mass tag-based data-dependent acquisition, and selected reaction monitoring. We further evaluate the method on simulated datasets that vary the number of doses, number of replicates, and levels of noise, and demonstrate that MSstatsResponse consistently improves sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility compared to existing methods, particularly in low-replicate and low-dose settings. MSstatsResponse is implemented as an open-source R/Bioconductor package that integrates with the MSstats ecosystem for quantitative proteomics. It provides a unified workflow for preprocessing, curve fitting, target identification, and experimental design, enabling researchers to select the number of doses and replicates appropriate to their experimental goals. The software and documentation are freely available at https://bioconductor.org/packages/MSstatsResponse.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Szvetecz, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kohler, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Federspiel, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Field, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jean-Beltran, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Seward, R. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Suh, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xue, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vitek, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.09.710598</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[MSstatsResponse: Semi-parametric statistical model enhances detection of drug-protein interactions in chemoproteomics experiments]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.09.710672v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Decoding epitope immunodominance in HIV Env using cryoEM and machine learning 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.09.710672v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Viral surface glycoproteins, such as the HIV envelope protein (Env), present numerous antibody (Ab) epitopes, yet immune responses consistently focus on only a subset, a phenomenon known as immunodominance. Although structural studies have provided insights into Env antigenicity, our understanding of the molecular features that govern efficient Ab engagement remains incomplete, thereby limiting the predictive and rational design of vaccines. Here, we characterized the structural determinants of epitope immunodominance in HIV Env by integrating high-resolution cryoEM-based polyclonal epitope mapping (cryoEMPEM) across different clades with quantitative analyses of epitope topology, accessibility, and physicochemical properties. More than 70 new structures were resolved to assemble a library of >100 Env-antibody complexes. These data informed the development of a surface-centric, machine-learning model to predict relative Antigen Surface Immunodominance (ASI model). Comparison of ASI-predicted epitope sites with the specificities of Env-induced antibodies showed that the model accurately identifies immunodominant regions and highlights the structural features driving immune bias. Notably, immunogens redesigned based on model predictions successfully redirected Ab responses toward a normally subdominant epitope, demonstrating the potential of strategies coupling targeted assembly of focused structural libraries with machine learning to uncover complex molecular patterns and enable design of more effective vaccine antigens.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schuhmacher, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xiao, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eray, E. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brown, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zambrowski, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Garcia, D. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ozorowski, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhu, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Saam, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Caniels, T. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moore, J. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crispin, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanders, R. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chakraborty, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Correia, B. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ward, A. B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Antanasijevic, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.09.710672</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Decoding epitope immunodominance in HIV Env using cryoEM and machine learning]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.10.710892v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Legacy 4(1H)-quinolone scaffolds activity against acute and chronic Toxoplasma gondii infection 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.10.710892v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite capable of infecting most warm-blooded animals, including humans, and can cause severe disease in immunocompromised individuals and the developing fetus. Current treatments for toxoplasmosis are effective only against the acute stage of infection and have limited or no activity against the latent bradyzoite stage found within tissue cysts. The mitochondrion of T. gondii is a validated drug target, and the clinically used drug atovaquone acts by inhibiting the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) at the coenzyme Q:cytochrome c oxidoreductase (bc1 complex). In this study, we evaluate two legacy 4(1H)-quinolones: ICI 56,780 and WR 243246, previously shown to inhibit the Plasmodium falciparum bc1 complex, for their efficacy against T. gondii. Both compounds inhibit tachyzoite growth with low-nanomolar EC values and disrupt parasite mitochondrial function by blocking cytochrome c reduction and collapsing the mitochondrial membrane potential. Notably, ICI 56,780 protects mice from lethal infection with type I RH tachyzoites. Importantly, ICI 56,780 also exhibits potent activity against chronic-stage parasites, reducing cyst size and bradyzoite viability in vitro and showing low-nanomolar EC values against in vivo-derived bradyzoites. In mice chronically infected with T. gondii, treatment with ICI 56,780 significantly decreases brain cyst burden. Although these 4(1H)-quinolones display some pharmacokinetic limitations, our findings highlight their potential as promising chemotypes active against both acute and chronic stages of T. gondii and provide a framework for future medicinal chemistry efforts to improve drug-like properties while preserving or enhancing anti-bradyzoite activity.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sleda, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diagne, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clifton, V. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Baierna, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Manetsch, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moreno, S. N. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-11</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.10.710892</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Legacy 4(1H)-quinolone scaffolds activity against acute and chronic Toxoplasma gondii infection]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-11</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711128v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Rapid and Interpretable AMR Diagnostics via Genomics and Cell Painting using Differential Geometry-based Directed-Simplicial Neural Networks on Multimodal Data 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711128v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains a critical global health challenge, particularly in high-prevalence regions such as India, where rapid and interpretable diagnostic tools are urgently needed. To address this challenge, we present a computational framework for AMR prediction that integrates genomic and cellular phenotypic data using an in-house developed differential geometry-based Directed Simplicial Neural Network (Dg-Dir-SNNs) applied to multimodal datasets.

Using this framework, we analyzed 384 clinically relevant AMR isolates, including Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, integrating 256 genomic k-mer features with 503 cellular morphology descriptors derived from high-content Cell Painting assays. The Dg-Dir-SNNs model constructs an inferred-causal network of top-ranked biomarker-driving features, predicting potential directional dependencies among genomic motifs and phenotypic features. Network analysis identified kmer_TATG as the top-ranked driver associated with predicted resistance, with a local neighborhood including other genomic motifs (kmer_TTTT, kmer_CGTG, kmer_TCAC, kmer_CGTA, kmer_GAAA, kmer_TAAA, kmer_TACA, kmer_TGTG, kmer_TGAG, kmer_AAAA) and a key morphological feature (Cells_correlation_ER_Brightfield). These relationships suggest potential mechanistic associations in which specific genomic motifs may influence cellular phenotypes linked to antimicrobial resistance.

Although not yet clinically deployed, this approach demonstrates the potential of multimodal AI-driven modeling for rapid in silico AMR prediction. By providing interpretable, biologically grounded insights, the framework may support future diagnostic development, targeted surveillance strategies, and experimental validation in high-resistance healthcare settings.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Thakur, L. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mahajan, S. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bharj, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dekanoidze, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shrivastava, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-12</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.11.711128</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Rapid and Interpretable AMR Diagnostics via Genomics and Cell Painting using Differential Geometry-based Directed-Simplicial Neural Networks on Multimodal Data]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-12</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711112v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Model recapitulates regenerative limb blastema formation through local softening of the wounded epithelium 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711112v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Studies of appendage regeneration in vertebrates have shown that the fundamental building block of any regenerative tissue is a blastema. The blastema is a cone-shaped accumulation that forms at the site of amputation post wound-healing and is the result of a highly coordinated process involving a cluster of cells capable of growth, migration, and differentiation. Although several key signaling pathways involved in regeneration have been identified, which cellular processes they control and how these processes are coordinated across space and time are not yet fully understood. This study introduces a computational tool to examine how the outgrowth results from the interaction of two tissue layers: the bulk (mesenchyme) and the overlying epithelium. We developed a novel hybrid agent-based modeling framework and an accompanying parameter inference pipeline to uncover the cellular properties in the epithelium and the mesenchyme driving the formation of a normal regenerative blastema with a morphology similar to that observed in experiments. Using our model, we report two conditions for blastema formation: retained local softening of the epithelial layer at the site of injury, which was confirmed experimentally with atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements, and the involvement of the Wnt signaling pathway in the directed migration of mesenchyme cells towards the distal tip. Taken together, this combined experimental-theoretical approach provides a framework for understanding how the Wnt signaling pathway influences the formation of the early blastema at multiple levels of organization and how key cellular behaviors contribute to its formation.

Author SummaryA small number of tetrapods have retained the ancestral ability to regenerate tissues and even limbs. Indifferent of species or tissue, the decisive initial stage of limb regeneration is the formation of a specialized structure called the blastema, a heterogeneous mass of mesenchymal cells, in a relatively short timescale of 2-14 days post injury or amputation. To study the mechanical and cellular conditions for limb blastema formation in the axolotl model organism, we developed a novel hybrid agent-based modeling framework and accompanying kinetic parameter inference pipeline. By recapitulating blastema morphometrics of healthy and stalled regenerative states, our model finds two conditions for blastema formation: retained local softening of the epithelial layer at the injury site post wound-healing, which we confirmed with atomic force microscopy measurements, and that the Wnt signaling pathway plays a role in the migration of mesenchyme cells to the distal tip in order to produce the blastema.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Finkbeiner, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brew-Smith, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fu, D. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Monaghan, J. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Copos, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.11.711112</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Model recapitulates regenerative limb blastema formation through local softening of the wounded epithelium]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711202v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
SPECIES DISTRIBUTION PROJECTIONS UNDER INTERNAL CLIMATE VARIABILITY REVEAL MULTIPLE PLAUSIBLE FUTURES REQUIRING FLEXIBLE CLIMATE-READY DECISIONS 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711202v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Traditional biodiversity projections using species distribution models (SDMs) assume that a given emissions pathway implies a largely predictable ecological response, yet how internal climate variability (ICV) translates into SDM outcomes remains largely uncharacterized. By projecting distributions for 34 marine and terrestrial species across 100 initial-condition members from CESM2-LENS2, we show that ICV alone produces qualitatively different outcomes, including reversals in projected range shifts. We classify these outcomes into four decision-relevant cases of increasing ICV susceptibility and find a pronounced marine-terrestrial divide that persists across time horizons. Responsiveness to ICV is not consistently explained by traits or local climate variability amplitude, implying it is atleast partly ecological in nature. Robust biodiversity planning therefore requires decisions stress-tested across distributions of plausible climate realizations rather than single best-estimate maps.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Benavides-Martinez, I. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mawalagedara, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ray, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aggarwal, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Allyn, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mills, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ganguly, A. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-13</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.11.711202</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[SPECIES DISTRIBUTION PROJECTIONS UNDER INTERNAL CLIMATE VARIABILITY REVEAL MULTIPLE PLAUSIBLE FUTURES REQUIRING FLEXIBLE CLIMATE-READY DECISIONS]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-13</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711145v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Automated culture and monitoring of a high-throughput human heart-on-a-chip 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.11.711145v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Organ chips offer a disruptive innovation to study human diseases with tissue-specific resolution within a predictable and tunable in vitro environment. However, these platform technologies have for the most part failed to translate to broad use in the private sector due to a lack of high-throughput, user-friendly platforms. Here we present an automated high-throughput organ chip seeded with iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes transduced with GCaMP6f and interface with translational technologies to bridge the current academia-industry gap. Cardiomyocytes were seeded on-chip fully hands-free using an entry-level fluid handling robot to significantly reduce user handling requirements. Pipette interfaces were paramount to facilitating seeding and feeding through improved tolerances for establishing a functional connection to dispense and collect small fluidic volumes. Following successful seeding, GCaMP6f activity on-chip was monitored with our automated, non-invasive fiber-optic sensing platform. We show a significant decrease in cardiomyocyte beat rate in response to decreased ambient culture temperature using data collected with our optical sensing platform. This study provides a potential translational blueprint for academia-industry partnership toward broad adoption of organ chip technology in drug development and disease modeling.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Schellberg, B. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Burson, N. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gomes, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dai, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, A. N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Koppes, R. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-14</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.11.711145</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Automated culture and monitoring of a high-throughput human heart-on-a-chip]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-14</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.17.711623v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Polypharmacology of an Optimal Kinase Library 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.17.711623v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Despite decades of research, current understanding of the spectrum of targets bound by kinase inhibitors remains incomplete. This complicates mechanism of action studies, drug repurposing, and understanding of adverse responses. Here, we describe kinome-wide profiling of an optimal kinase library (OKL) comprising 192 small molecules selected based on stage of clinical development, chemical diversity, and target coverage. Our results show that polypharmacology is widespread among kinase inhibitors independent of regulatory approval. The generally understood ("assigned") targets of approved molecules are not necessarily the most potently inhibited and off targets include multiple understudied kinases. Moreover, median selectivity has not increased over time. We illustrate the use of synoptic OKL-kinome profiles in identifying potential toxicity targets, repurposing anti-inflammatory drugs for neurodegenerative and infectious diseases, and performing chemical genetic studies. Our studies illustrate how much remains to be discovered about the chemistry and biology of one of the largest classes of human therapeutics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Mills, C. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hug, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sajeevan, K. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Clark, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Victor, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chung, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rawat, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Aldridge, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Albers, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chowdhury, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gyori, B. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sorger, P. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-19</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.17.711623</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Polypharmacology of an Optimal Kinase Library]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-19</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.19.713017v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Library docking for Cannabinoid-2 Receptor ligands 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.19.713017v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Cannabinoid receptors are therapeutically promising GPCRs that are also interesting test systems for structure-based methods, which have targeted them previously. Here we used the CB2 receptor as a template to explore several topical questions in library docking. Whereas an earlier campaign against the CB1 receptor led to potent but relatively non-selective ligands, here we found that targeting interactions with polar, orthosteric site residues led to subtype-selective ligands. Docking hit rate and especially hit affinity improved in moving from a 7 million to a 2.6 billion molecule library. Similar to earlier studies, docking against active and inactive states of the receptor did not reliably bias toward the discovery of agonists or inverse agonists. Cryo-EM structures of two of the new agonists, each in a different chemotype, superposed well on the docking predictions. Correspondingly, structure-based optimization led to 10- to 140-fold improvements within three different series, also consistent with well-behaved ligand families. Hit rates with a fully enumerated 2.6 billion molecule library resembled those of an implied 11 billion molecule library from a building-block method, consistent with the latters ability to explore this space, though higher affinities were discovered from the fully enumerated set. Overall, eight diverse families of ligands, with potencies <100 nM and mostly unrelated to previously known ligands were found. Implications for future studies are considered.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Rachman, M. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Iliopoulos-Tsoutsouvas, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dominic Sacco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xu, X.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wu, C.-G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Santos, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Glenn, I. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Paris, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cahill, M. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ganapathy, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tummino, T. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Moroz, Y. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radchenko, D. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Okorie, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tawfik, V. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Irwin, J. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Makriyannis, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Skiniotis, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shoichet, B. K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-21</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.19.713017</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Library docking for Cannabinoid-2 Receptor ligands]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-21</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.20.713160v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Inter-individual variation of cellular and gene-expression properties of the human striatum 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.20.713160v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The human brain varies from person to person in ways that shape behaviors and vulnerabilities, yet the cellular and molecular bases for inter-individual variation are largely unknown. Here we describe an analysis of cellular and gene-expression variation in four key structures of the striatum complex - the caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens, and internal capsule - as well as the prefrontal cortex, from single-nucleus RNA-seq analysis of 3.9 million nuclei from 178 adult brain donors. We found that people with more astrocytes in any one brain region tended to have this property in all brain regions sampled; the same was true of striatal interneurons, microglia, and oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs). OPCs showed attrition with age, declining in numbers by approximately 40% between age 30 and age 80 in both gray matter and white matter regions. We identified thousands of age-associated (but few sex-associated) variations in gene expression; the vast majority of these effects of age were cell-type-specific. Aging most strongly affected gene expression in projection neurons - especially striatal medium spiny neurons (MSNs/SPNs) - and had a much smaller effect on gene expression in interneurons. Individuals ages could be predicted to within about five years based on RNA-expression patterns from any of the striatal cell types. Common genetic variants detectably affected the expression levels of some ten thousand genes; the great majority of these effects were cell-type-specific. These data will provide a foundation for exploring natural inter-individual variation, aging, and tissue-based studies of human brain vulnerabilities.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Burger, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yoo, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nemesh, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Muratoglu, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vanderburg, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yuan, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shakir, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mello, C. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rayan, N. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Milidantri, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Drouin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Finn, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gao, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Budnik, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Goldman, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fritch, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Genovese, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hogan, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Catalini, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kashin, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rockweiler, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wysoker, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Macaisa, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Reese, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Flowers, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kraft, A. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fleming, S. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Coe, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gunaratne, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Spina, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Crombie, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mohsin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kamitaki, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Macosko, E. Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ichihara, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McCarroll, S. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.20.713160</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Inter-individual variation of cellular and gene-expression properties of the human striatum]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.22.713230v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A Mitochondrial Basis for Tead4 Bioavailability at the First Mammalian Cell Fate Decision 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.22.713230v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Specification of the inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm (TE) at the first mammalian cell fate decision requires the transcription factor Tead4, yet what restricts Tead4 activity to presumptive TE cells remains unknown. Tead4 localizes to mitochondria, and the ICM and TE harbor distinct mitochondrial populations, but whether Tead4 distribution varies across mitochondrial subtypes in the cleavage-stage embryo has not been examined. Here we used fluorescence-activated mitochondrial sorting (FAMS) to characterize mitochondrial subpopulations in mouse metaphase-II oocytes and 8-cell embryos with respect to size, mitochondrial membrane potential ({Delta}{Psi}m), and Tead4 protein content. Mitochondria are heterogeneous in size and {Delta}{Psi}m in both developmental stages, with large mitochondria exhibiting markedly higher {Delta}{Psi}m than small mitochondria. Tead4 protein is concentrated in the large, high-{Delta}{Psi}m mitochondrial subpopulation in 8-cell embryos, with 75% of large mitochondria containing Tead4 compared to only 3% of small mitochondria. The overall size distribution of the mitochondrial pool is maintained between oocytes and 8-cell embryos; Tead4 accumulation within the large mitochondrial fraction is therefore a developmentally regulated process initiated specifically during the early embryogenesis. These findings establish for the first time that Tead4 localizes preferentially to large, high-{Delta}{Psi}m mitochondria in the cleavage-stage embryo, providing a previously unrecognized cellular basis for understanding how Tead4 bioavailability may be regulated prior to TE specification.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Sheehan, H. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Piasecki, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tilly, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-23</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.22.713230</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A Mitochondrial Basis for Tead4 Bioavailability at the First Mammalian Cell Fate Decision]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-23</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.23.713613v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Modulating Innate Immune Responses to Curli Fibers Through Protein Engineering 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.23.713613v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Curli fibers produced by Escherichia coli are functional amyloids that activate Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), initiating innate immune responses at mucosal surfaces. While microbiome-derived curli contribute to host-microbe interactions, their intrinsic immunostimulatory activity limits their utility as programmable scaffolds for engineered probiotic systems, and dysregulated TLR2 activation has been linked to inflammatory bowel disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, neurodegeneration, and sepsis. Here, we engineered E. coli Nissle 1917 to produce modified curli fibers designed to inhibit TLR2 through two mechanistically distinct strategies: steric shielding via silk-elastin-like protein sequences, and direct receptor antagonism via a known TLR2 antagonist, staphylococcal superantigen-like protein 3 (SSL3). Both engineered variants assembled into structurally intact amyloid fibers and exhibited significantly reduced intrinsic TLR2-dependent NF-{kappa}B activation in reporter cells. In competitive inhibition assays against structurally diverse TLR2 agonists, the SSL3 fusion achieved near-complete inhibition maintained under rising agonist load, while steric shielding provided moderate, agonist-class-dependent inhibition. In primary human monocyte-derived dendritic cells, the SSL3 fusion robustly attenuated IL-8 secretion and transcriptional induction of IL-8, IL-6, and IL-1{beta}, whereas steric shielding produced only partial attenuation that did not translate to broad inflammatory suppression. These results establish engineered curli as a tunable platform for receptor-specific modulation of innate immune signaling and highlight the broader potential of modular microbial amyloids as programmable interfaces for engineering host-microbe interactions at mucosal surfaces.

IMPORTANCEBacteria residing in the gut produce protein fibers called curli that potently activate the immune system through a receptor called Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2). While TLR2 plays a beneficial role in maintaining gut health, its overactivation drives chronic inflammation in conditions including inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and sepsis, and curli fibers have been directly implicated in several of these conditions. Here, we engineered curli fibers produced by the probiotic E. coli Nissle 1917 to inhibit TLR2 activation, transforming a naturally inflammatory bacterial fiber into a programmable immune modulator. We demonstrated that direct receptor antagonism, rather than steric shielding, is required for effective immune modulation in primary human immune cells, establishing a design principle for engineering bacteria-derived fibers as programmable interfaces with host immunity. The modularity of the curli scaffold positions this platform as a broader tool for programming interactions between probiotic bacteria and the mucosal immune system.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bonanno, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheta, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ramu, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Verenkar, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bessette, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pierre, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Joshi, N. S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-25</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.23.713613</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Modulating Innate Immune Responses to Curli Fibers Through Protein Engineering]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-25</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.24.713239v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
A network for self-transcendence derived from patients with brain lesions 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.24.713239v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Self-transcendence, the reorientation of experience away from the self toward others, nature, or broader meaning, is a fundamental dimension of human psychology, yet its causal neural architecture remains poorly understood. Here we applied lesion network mapping to 88 neurosurgical patients with pre- and post-operative assessments of trait self-transcendence to identify the distributed brain network whose disruption alters this capacity. The resulting network showed significant spatial correspondence with the default mode network and, at a finer parcellation level, with frontoparietal control subnetworks. Leave-one-out analyses identified posterior midline regions as the most stable correlates of increased self-transcendence following brain lesions. Independent validation against fMRI meta-analyses of self-referential processing, compassion, and ketamine administration, alongside a neuromodulation target previously shown to modulate the sense of self, converged on a consistent model. These findings provide causal evidence for a network architecture in which posterior midline hubs constrain, and brainstem and anterior midline regions facilitate, self-transcendent experience.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Healey, M. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanchez-Gama, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ding, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>McMahon, J. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bourbon, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jesani, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Atwood, G. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lord, B. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sanguinetti, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brewer, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Vago, D. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Siddiqi, S. H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Fabbro, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Urgesi, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Nielsen, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ferguson, M. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.24.713239</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[A network for self-transcendence derived from patients with brain lesions]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.25.714214v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mitochondrial subpopulations in oocytes and cumulus cells exhibit distinct age-associated changes and selective plasticity in response to NMN supplementation 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.25.714214v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
BackgroundMitochondrial dysfunction is a leading contributor to the decline in oocyte quality associated with maternal aging. Prior investigations of mitochondrial function in the ovarian follicle have largely treated the mitochondrial pool as a homogeneous population, reporting aggregate values that may obscure biologically meaningful differences between distinct mitochondrial subpopulations. The present study addresses this limitation by characterizing mitochondrial subpopulation dynamics in oocytes and cumulus granulosa cells at single-organelle resolution using fluorescence-activated mitochondria sorting (FAMS).

ResultsAnalysis of the aggregate mitochondrial population in mouse oocytes revealed no significant age-associated differences in mitochondrial DNA copy number or membrane potential, a result that would previously have been interpreted as evidence of minimal age-related mitochondrial change. Subpopulation analysis revealed this conclusion to be incomplete: aged oocytes showed significantly elevated mitochondrial DNA copy number specifically within the high membrane potential and small mitochondrial subpopulations, with no significant differences in the low membrane potential or large subpopulations. NMN supplementation normalized mitochondrial DNA copy number in the high membrane potential and small subpopulations toward young levels while producing an opposing effect in large mitochondria, demonstrating subpopulation-specific rather than uniform rejuvenation. In cumulus cells, significant age-associated changes were detectable at the aggregate level, including a reduction in mitochondrial DNA copy number and an elevation in membrane potential, and subpopulation analysis further resolved these findings. The age-associated reduction in cumulus cell mitochondrial DNA copy number was driven predominantly by the high membrane potential subpopulation. NMN supplementation exerted opposing effects on small and large cumulus cell mitochondrial subpopulations, increasing mitochondrial DNA copy number above both young and aged levels in small mitochondria while further reducing it below aged levels in large mitochondria.

ConclusionsViewing the mitochondrial pool as a heterogeneous mixture of functionally distinct subpopulations rather than a uniform population reveals age-associated alterations in oocytes and cumulus cells that are undetectable by aggregate analysis. NMN supplementation exerts subpopulation-specific effects in both cell types, identifying specific mitochondrial subtypes as more precise targets for future mechanistic investigation of age-associated infertility than the mitochondrial pool considered in aggregate.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Piasecki, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sheehan, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ledo Hopgood, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tilly, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.25.714214</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mitochondrial subpopulations in oocytes and cumulus cells exhibit distinct age-associated changes and selective plasticity in response to NMN supplementation]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.25.714226v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Mitochondria-Associated Transcription Precedes Oxidative Phosphorylation Activation During Human Pre-Implantation Embryogenesis 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.25.714226v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Mitochondria undergo significant structural and functional changes during human pre-implantation embryogenesis, yet the transcriptional activity of both nuclear-encoded mitochondria-associated genes and mitochondrially transcribed genes across this developmental window remains poorly characterized. While mitochondria are established as the primary energy source for the early embryo, emerging evidence suggests they may also influence lineage specification through epigenetic regulation and metabolite availability. To investigate this, we reanalyzed two publicly available human single-cell RNA sequencing datasets filtered for mitochondria-associated genes using the MitoCarta 3.0 reference database, with separate analyses conducted on the nuclear-encoded and mitochondrially transcribed subsets. The first dataset spanned individual blastomeres from the oocyte through blastocyst stage, and the second compared trophectoderm and inner cell mass cells isolated from blastocysts. Mitochondria-associated gene expression was sufficient to cluster human blastomeres by developmental stage, with morula and blastocyst stage cells forming well-defined clusters. Mitochondrially transcribed genes were found to be the primary drivers of clustering in earlier developmental stages, while nuclear-encoded mitochondria-associated genes drove clustering at the blastocyst stage. A pronounced shift in the expression of both gene sets was identified at the transition from the 4-cell to the 8-cell stage, with 115 unique differentially expressed genes identified across the two stages immediately following this transition, compared to only 5 across the two prior stages. The timing of this transcriptional upregulation, preceding the known onset of oxidative phosphorylation at approximately the 32-cell stage, suggests a mitochondrial role in early embryogenesis beyond energy production. Analysis of trophectoderm and inner cell mass cells showed that mitochondrial gene expression profiles partially distinguished these two lineages, consistent with known differences in mitochondrial activity between them. These findings suggest that both nuclear-encoded and mitochondrially transcribed gene expression is upregulated prior to the first lineage specification event in the human embryo, potentially contributing to epigenetic regulation and cell fate determination through altered metabolite availability. A limitation of this study is its reliance on transcriptomic data alone; future work incorporating functional metabolite measurements will be needed to establish causality. Nonetheless, these data reframe mitochondria as active participants in early human developmental programming rather than passive energy suppliers.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Piasecki, A. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Franco, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Capelluto, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Khrapko, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tilly, J. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Woods, D. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-27</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.25.714226</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Mitochondria-Associated Transcription Precedes Oxidative Phosphorylation Activation During Human Pre-Implantation Embryogenesis]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-27</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.27.714800v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Structure-Led Exploration of the Metagenome Yields Novel RNA-Guided Nucleases with Broad PAM Diversity 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.27.714800v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
CRISPR-Cas bacterial adaptive immune systems use reprogrammable RNA guide sequences to specifically bind and cleave nucleic acids, which have been repurposed for easy and relatively efficient genomic editing. Despite its widespread use in biomedical research, the large size of Cas9 hinders AAV-mediated therapeutic delivery. Smaller RNA-guided nucleases could improve AAV gene therapy delivery, but their application is limited by their rarity among bacterial genomes and the restrictive sequence preferences of known systems, especially compared to the diversity of PAMs seen in the highly abundant Cas9 systems. Existing methods for identification of novel CRISPR subtypes rely on sequencing ever more bacterial genomes and comparing sequence homology. Using recent advances in protein structure prediction and comparison, we have identified and characterized proteins from known and novel compact RNA guided nucleases and demonstrated that their PAM preference diversity meets or exceeds that of Cas9 systems or the compact IscB and TnpB systems. This discovery has enabled us to demonstrate editing in eukaryotic cells with multiple novel subtypes, which--together with their compact size, varied PAM sequences, and high specificity--make them attractive tools for in vivo genome editing
]]></description>
<dc:creator>de los Santos, E. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rieber, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Catherman, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hatfield, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bowen, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-29</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.27.714800</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Structure-Led Exploration of the Metagenome Yields Novel RNA-Guided Nucleases with Broad PAM Diversity]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-29</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.26.714432v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The diploid reference genome of a human embryonic stem cell line 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.26.714432v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Advances in DNA sequencing and assembly technologies are spurring a shift from haploid reference genomes to sample-specific diploid assemblies. Here, we generated the first telomere-to-telomere (T2T) diploid reference for the widely used human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line, H9 (WAe009-A). This haplotype-resolved assembly is highly accurate with comprehensive annotation of genes, segmental duplications, methylation, and chromatin conformation. Pangenomic and phased-locus inference point to H9s mixed ancestry with a predominant European component. H9-specific genomic features include near-perfect telomeres [~]1.65-fold longer than other T2T assemblies, consistent with telomerase activity during pluripotency; chromosome 17 inversions that can predispose offspring to neurological syndromes; and expansions of ncRNA clusters, with overall genomic stability maintained despite extensive culturing. Mapping multi-omic datasets to the genome, we demonstrate the power of this resource for allele-specific, high-precision transcriptomic, genetic, and epigenetic analyses, with far-reaching implications for human development and disease.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pacar, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ungaro, M. T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chen, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dallali, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Medico, J. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Hebbar, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diekhaus, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Di Tommaso, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geleta, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Chan, P. P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lowe, T. M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Balacco, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ackerman, F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mochi, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Ioannidis, A. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Sawarkar, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diaz, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Krishna Sudhakar, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Powell, J. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jain, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosa, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Croft, G. F.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tanzer, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jarvis, E. D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Formenti, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Salama, S. R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Giunta, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-30</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.26.714432</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The diploid reference genome of a human embryonic stem cell line]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-30</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.29.715085v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
The world's first cloned golden wild yak via interspecific SCNT: 4800m donor origin and 4200m vitrified blastocyst transfer 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.29.715085v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Primarily inhabiting the harsh, high-altitude environment of the Qiangtang National Nature Reserve exceeding 5,000 meters above the sea (m.a.s.l.), the golden wild yak is critically endangered, with fewer than 300 individuals remaining in the world, a situation exacerbated by the significant challenges of conducting research and conservation of their genetic resources. Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) can be an effective method for their preservation, but facing several obstacles in this context, including the hypoxic stress at high altitude that impairs embryonic development due to in vitro manipulation, and constraints of long-distance embryo transport. In the present study, the ear tissue was collected from a childhood male golden wild yak at Xizang Geye Wildlife Rescue Station (4800 m.a.s.l.) and send to Institute of Animal Science at Beijing to derive fibroblast cells. Using fibroblast cells of the golden wild yak as nuclear donors, and bovine oocytes from a local slaughterhouse at Beijing as recipients, the interspecific SCNT (iSCNT) embryos were generated and in vitro developed to blastocysts. To maintain the embryonic viability after long-distance transportation from Beijing to Xizang, iSCNT blastocysts were subjected to cryopreservation by vitrification method. Thawing of vitrified iSCNT blastocysts were completed at Xizang Dangxiong Yak Breeding Innovation Base (4200 m.a.s.l.), and transferred into the uterine horn of domestic yaks. 257 days after blastocyst transfer, a cloned golden wild yak was successfully harvested on January 10, 2026. This work demonstrates, for the first time, that interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer can successfully produce a cloned offspring under extreme conditions, spanning 4800 m.a.s.l. donor origin, long-distance vitrified embryo transportation, and high-altitude blastocyst transfer at 4200 m.a.s.l., establishing a viable strategy for conserving critically endangered high-altitude species.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Yu, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Q.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cao, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gu, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Yin, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Wang, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pan, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Liu, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Zhou, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lan, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Huang, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Basang, W.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-03-31</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.29.715085</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[The world's first cloned golden wild yak via interspecific SCNT: 4800m donor origin and 4200m vitrified blastocyst transfer]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-03-31</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.30.713919v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Subcellular Localization Constrains Protein Detectability and Reveals Systematic RNA-Protein Discordance Across Cancers 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.30.713919v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Transcript abundance is widely used as a proxy for protein expression in cancer studies; however, mRNA levels often fail to predict protein detectability due to post-transcriptional and compartment-specific regulatory processes. Here, we present a machine learning framework that integrates RNA expression, gene-level attributes, and subcellular localization to model protein detectability across human cancers.

Leveraging transcriptomic data from TCGA, TARGET, and GTEx, and protein annotations from the Human Protein Atlas, we constructed a dataset comprising over 100,000 gene-cancer pairs across seven tumor types. Models based on RNA features alone achieved moderate predictive performance (ROC-AUC ~0.71), whereas incorporating subcellular localization significantly improved accuracy (ROC-AUC ~0.82). Paired bootstrap analysis confirmed that these gains were statistically robust.

We further identify a substantial set of genes with high transcript abundance yet absent protein detection, revealing widespread RNA-protein decoupling. These discordant genes are enriched in mitochondrial, metabolic, and translational regulatory pathways, suggesting that discordance reflects structured biological processes rather than stochastic variation. Together, our results demonstrate that cellular context, particularly subcellular localization, is a key determinant of protein detectability and underscore the limitations of transcript-centric interpretations in cancer genomics.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Joshi, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kate, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.30.713919</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Subcellular Localization Constrains Protein Detectability and Reveals Systematic RNA-Protein Discordance Across Cancers]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.30.715280v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Range-wide genetic population structure and environmental adaptation in the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) provides insight for aquaculture 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.30.715280v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Selective breeding in aquaculture is necessary to establish food security and meet demand for sustainably produced protein. An informed selective breeding program requires understanding how population structure, environmental adaptation, and human activities shape natural genetic variation in wild conspecifics. Unfortunately, wild variation remains poorly characterized for many commercially important aquaculture species. Here, we conduct the first range-wide study of genomic population structure for the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) across thousands of miles (Texas, USA to Eastern Canada) using a 200K SNP array. We integrate population structure analyses, genotype-environmental associations, and structural variant detection to identify adaptive loci and quantify human-mediated genetic impacts. Our data confirms two ancestral clusters with a phylogeographic break between the Gulf and Atlantic (FST = 0.06) and highlights patterns of substructure within each region. We find evidence of unexpected patterns of genomic variation in two locations: evidence of Gulf ancestry in a mid-Atlantic estuary (Chesapeake Bay), and evidence of Atlantic ancestry in a Gulf estuary (Apalachicola Bay). While we cannot definitively determine the causes of these unexpected patterns, we show that they are consistent with direct and indirect human impacts in these estuaries. Genotype-environment association analyses with in situ temperature and salinity measurements were used to identify putatively adaptive loci, including SNPs within large structural variants (>1Mb). Our results identified genomic targets for aquaculture breeding programs aimed at climate resilience, reveal complex patterns of human impacts in managed systems, and demonstrate how seascape genomics can be used to improve aquaculture outcomes.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Eppley, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bajaj, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rumberger, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Leung, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mongillo, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Small, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-04-01</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.03.30.715280</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Range-wide genetic population structure and environmental adaptation in the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) provides insight for aquaculture]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-04-01</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.02.716183v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Contrasting effects of geographic distance, environmental distance, and intraspecific diversity on the performance of a marine invertebrate in common gardens 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.02.716183v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Restoration and management of natural populations often assume that local genotypes are best suited for transplantation to their local environment. Prioritizing a single local genotype, however, contrasts with the framework of maximizing intraspecific diversity to increase population resilience to environmental change. Local populations may also become maladapted to a rapidly changing environment, motivating alternative frameworks that instead minimize environmental distance between source and transplantation sites. Here, we tested the predictive power of the local is best, maximize intraspecific diversity, and minimize environmental distance frameworks on the survival and growth of Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) genotypes in field common gardens that differed in salinity and disease pressure. Although a genome scan revealed patterns of adaptation to disease, heat stress, and salinity among source populations, we did not find strong support for the local is best framework: geographically distant southern genotypes performed comparably to local selection lines and a local wild population. Higher genetic diversity within monocultures was associated with higher survival, yet highly diverse polycultures survived at lower rates than the best-performing monocultures, providing mixed support for the maximize intraspecific diversity framework. Temperature and salinity of the environments-of-origin of parents predicted the survival of their offspring in common gardens, but the relationship between survival and environmental distance was context-dependent, leading to mixed support for the minimize environmental distance framework. Together, these results demonstrate that no single framework reliably predicted transplantation success, suggesting that effective management strategies may need to integrate genomic and environmental lines of evidence to guide genotype selection.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Bajaj, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Mongillo, N.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Eppley, M. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rumberger, C. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Segnitz, Z.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Katsuki, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Carnegie, R.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Small, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Lotterhos, K. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-04-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.04.02.716183</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Contrasting effects of geographic distance, environmental distance, and intraspecific diversity on the performance of a marine invertebrate in common gardens]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-04-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.03.716176v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Control of cell division by an Acinetobacter baumannii protein with a novel nucleotidyl-cyclase-like fold 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.03.716176v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The multidrug-resistant sepsis pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii has diverged from model {gamma}-proteobacteria in fundamental ways, hindering efforts to develop new lines of attack against the microbe. A major area of divergence is cell division. The pathogen lacks several widely conserved division enzymes, such as FtsEX, and instead possesses a suite of atypical gene products showing no sequence similarity to any well-characterized proteins. Key among these unusual proteins is AdvA. In previous Tn-seq studies, we identified AdvA as essential for A. baumannii division and fluoroquinolone resistance. The protein comprises an N-terminal transmembrane/periplasmic region connected to a C-terminal unannotated cytoplasmic domain. Interestingly, most advA transposon insertions were lethal unless they occurred within the linker between these two regions. The roles of AdvA in cell division and the basis for positional transposon effects were unclear. Here, we combine mutagenesis with fluorescence localization, two-hybrid, and structural analyses to investigate how AdvA domains function in assembling and activating the A. baumannii divisome. We show that AdvA depletion profoundly disrupts divisome construction at Z-rings. This dependence is based on numerous interactions by AdvA with divisome proteins, with its N-terminal region binding multiple components and the cytoplasmic domain binding one (the early protein ZipA). In addition, we identified substitutions in FtsB and FtsW that suppress AdvA essentiality, consistent with a role in divisome protein activation as well as recruitment. Finally, we determined the structure of the AdvA cytoplasmic domain, which revealed a novel 3D-fold resembling adenylyl/guanylyl cyclases with striking deviations. Most notably, AdvA lacks canonical catalytic and dimerization sites and contains unusual features, including a positively charged tip promoting fluoroquinolone resistance and an extra C-terminal helix essential to divisome interactions and cell division. The critical nature of the most C-terminal structure in AdvA helps explain the positional effects of transposon insertions and facilitated identification of a distant structural homolog in the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These results illuminate a new type of control protein governing bacterial division that could be exploited for improved antimicrobial strategies targeting nosocomial infections.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Farinha, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Soo, M. W.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Minasov, G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Inniss, N. L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shuvalova, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Dharamdasani, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Finkler, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stearns, O.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Shenoy, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Kim, C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Satchell, K. J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Geisinger, E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-04-04</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.04.03.716176</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Control of cell division by an Acinetobacter baumannii protein with a novel nucleotidyl-cyclase-like fold]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-04-04</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.02.716175v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Terazosin drives sex-dependent adrenergic-bioenergetic reprogramming to restore network function in Alzheimer's disease 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.02.716175v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Alzheimers disease (AD) has long been defined by amyloid-{beta} plaques and hyperphosphorylated tau, yet disease-modifying therapies remain critically limited. Growing evidence reframes AD as a system-level failure driven by early dysregulation of synaptic, metabolic, and neuroimmune pathways, preceding overt protein aggregation and originating in selectively vulnerable circuits, including the locus coeruleus (LC)-hippocampal noradrenergic axis. This complexity underscores the need for therapeutic strategies that engage the disease at a network level, early in its trajectory.

To this end, using a machine learning-based systems pharmacology framework for drug repurposing applied to human AD transcriptomic datasets, we identified terazosin (TZ) as a candidate predicted to reverse AD-associated molecular signatures. TZ is an FDA-approved -adrenergic receptor antagonist and phosphoglycerate kinase-1 activator. It was administered chronically via the diet (0.5 mg/kg bw/day) to male and female TgF344-AD rats and wild-type littermates from 5 to 11 months of age, preceding overt pathology.

Bulk hippocampal RNA sequencing revealed sex-specific transcriptional remodeling in transgenic rats, strongly conserved with human AD datasets. Male TgF344-AD rats exhibited suppression of synaptic and transcriptional maintenance pathways with concurrent activation of metabolic, proteostatic, extracellular matrix, and vascular stress responses; females showed suppression of survival and vascular structural signaling alongside heightened DAM-like immune activation, amyloid-associated stress, and cell death programs. TZ reversed these signatures in a sex-dependent manner: males showed enhanced immune surveillance and reduced proteostasis burden, while females showed reinforcement of synaptic, survival, and metabolic pathways. TgF344-AD rats displayed selective LC-derived hippocampal noradrenergic axonopathy without global neuronal loss. TZ preserved fiber integrity preferentially in females and partially reversed LC vulnerability-associated transcriptional signatures in both sexes. TZ also reduced amyloid-{beta} plaque burden in both sexes, attenuated hyperphosphorylated tau exclusively in females, and induced microglial morphological shifts in males. Finally, TZ restored wild-type spatial learning in transgenic animals, with females appearing to derive the greater cognitive benefit.

Together, these findings demonstrate that TZ induced systems-level reprogramming of AD-relevant molecular pathways and preserved vulnerable noradrenergic circuitry in a sex-dependent manner. Moreover, TZ rescued spatial cognition in transgenic rats, with cognitive gains seemingly more pronounced in females. These results support adrenergic-bioenergetic modulation as a translational strategy for early-stage AD and underscore the necessity of sex as a biological variable in disease-modifying treatment development.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Pattanashetty, S. G.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Serrano, P. A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rockwell, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Xie, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Figueiredo-Pereira, M. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-04-06</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.04.02.716175</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Terazosin drives sex-dependent adrenergic-bioenergetic reprogramming to restore network function in Alzheimer's disease]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-04-06</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.06.716652v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Bridging Higher-Order Information Theory and Neuroimaging: A Voxel-Wise O-Information Framework 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.06.716652v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
The brains functional organization has been extensively studied through pairwise connectivity analyses. While these approaches have provided important insights into brain network organization, they fall short in capturing the complexity of high-order functional interactions (HOI). Particularly relevant is the investigation of redundancy and synergy patterns -not addressable with pairwise interactions-, revealing fundamental mechanisms of brain integration and information processing across various cognitive functions and clinical conditions. Conventional neuroimaging software packages are primarily designed for classical (general linear model-like) analyses but lack native support for HOI metrics. To address this gap, this study introduces a novel framework that bridges high-order information theory with conventional neuroimaging analysis pipelines and is subsequently applied to resting-state functional MRI to demonstrate its practical utility. By representing HOI into voxel-level metrics, our approach allows standard neuroimaging analyses to probe complex multivariate dependencies. Moreover, voxel-level group-comparison analyses show age differences linked with reduced redundancy in default mode network interactions. These findings advance our understanding of the complex relationship between multivariate functional interactions, voxel-level neuroimaging, and behavior, highlighting novel analytic strategies to study high-order information processing underlying cognitive function and its alterations in pathological conditions.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Camino-Pontes, B.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Jimenez-Marin, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Tellaetxe-Elorriaga, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Erramuzpe Aliaga, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Diez, I.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bonifazi, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Gatica, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Rosas, F. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Marinazzo, D.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Stramaglia, S.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Cortes, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-04-08</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.04.06.716652</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Bridging Higher-Order Information Theory and Neuroimaging: A Voxel-Wise O-Information Framework]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-04-08</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.15.718599v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
Calibration of in-frame indel variant effect predictors for clinical variant classification 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.15.718599v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
Insertions and deletions (indels) represent a substantial source of genetic variation in humans and are associated with a diverse array of functional consequences. Despite their prevalence and clinical importance, indels, particularly short in-frame indels, remain critically understudied compared to single nucleotide variants and are challenging to interpret clinically. While many computational predictors for missense variants have been rigorously evaluated and calibrated for clinical use, the clinical utility of tools for in-frame indels remains uncertain. To address this gap, we have calibrated in-frame indel prediction tools for clinical variant classification. We constructed a high-confidence dataset of in-frame indel variants ([&le;] 50bp) from clinical and population databases and estimated the prior probability of pathogenicity of a rare in-frame indel observed in a disease-associated gene, and of an insertion and deletion separately. Using a previously developed statistical framework based on local posterior probabilities, we then established score thresholds for eight computational tools, corresponding to distinct evidence levels for pathogenic and benign classification according to ACMG/AMP guidelines. All in-frame indel predictors evaluated here reached multiple evidence levels of pathogenicity and/or benignity, demonstrating measurable clinical value. However, these models consistently exhibited lower performance levels compared to missense predictors, highlighting the need for improved computational approaches for indel classification.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Abderrazzaq, H.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Singh, M.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Babb, L.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bergquist, T.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Brenner, S. E.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Pejaver, V.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>O'Donnell-Luria, A.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Radivojac, P.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>ClinGen Computational Working Group,</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>ClinGen Variant Classification Working Group,</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-04-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.04.15.718599</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[Calibration of in-frame indel variant effect predictors for clinical variant classification]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-04-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
<item rdf:about="https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.16.718937v1?rss=1">
<title>
<![CDATA[
16S rRNA k-mer composition encodes microbial functional potential 
]]>
</title>
<link>https://biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.16.718937v1?rss=1</link>
<description><![CDATA[
16S rRNA amplicon sequencing is widely used to profile microbiome taxonomic composition and functional potential. Most 16S rRNA-based analysis methods depend on comparing sequenced reads against reference marker genes from previously characterized organisms. Thus, method accuracy declines in environments dominated by uncharacterized microbes.

We uncovered a direct link between 16S rRNA and genome-encoded functions. Using fully sequenced bacterial genomes, we show that (i) whole-genome k-mer composition is predictive of functions encoded in the genome and (ii) 16S rRNA k-mer profiles reflect their source genome k-mer compositions. Leveraging these relationships, we developed embeRNA, a neural network-based framework that predicts functions directly from 16S rRNA k-mer embeddings, without taxonomy assignment or phylogenetic placement. Furthermore, by producing per-function probability scores rather than categorical assignments, embeRNA allows users to adapt decision thresholds to match study goals and sample characteristics, e.g. balancing precision vs. recall or accounting for community novelty.

We trained embeRNA on a large collection of bacterial function-omes and evaluated it using a stringent "novel microbes" benchmark, where all test 16S rRNA sequences were dissimilar to those seen in training (all <97% identical). On this test set of phylogenetically novel organisms, embeRNA outperformed reference-based methods overall and achieved significantly better performance for the "hard to label" set of functions.

In testing on soil metagenomes with paired 16S rRNA amplicon and whole metagenome shotgun (WMS) sequencing data, embeRNA recovered most WMS-inferred functions and yielded abundance profiles strongly correlated with WMS results. Together, our results indicate that 16S rRNA k-mer composition carries substantial functional signal and that 16S amplicon data can be used to complement WMS-based inference to broaden functional characterization of microbiomes, particularly in understudied environments.
]]></description>
<dc:creator>Liu, J.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>De Paolis Klauza, M. C.</dc:creator>
<dc:creator>Bromberg, Y.</dc:creator>
<dc:date>2026-04-18</dc:date>
<dc:identifier>doi:10.64898/2026.04.16.718937</dc:identifier>
<dc:title><![CDATA[16S rRNA k-mer composition encodes microbial functional potential]]></dc:title>
<dc:publisher>Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press</dc:publisher>
<prism:publicationDate>2026-04-18</prism:publicationDate>
<prism:section></prism:section>
</item>
</rdf:RDF>
