by Mai Ikei, Ryoji Miyazaki, Keigo Monden, Yusuke Naito, Azusa Takeuchi, Yutaro S. Takahashi, Yoshiki Tanaka, Keina Murata, Takaharu Mori, Muneyoshi Ichikawa, Tomoya Tsukazaki Uptake of thiosulfate ions as an inorganic sulfur source from the environment is important for bacterial sulfur assimilation. Recently, a selective thiosulfate uptake pathway involving a membrane protein YeeE (TsuA) in Escherichia coli was characterized. YeeE-like proteins are conserved in some bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes. However, the precise function of YeeE, along with its potential partner protein in the thiosu ..read more

by Deng Wu, Jacquelyne Ka-Li Sun, Kim Hei-Man Chow Increasing evidence indicates that terminally differentiated neurons in the brain may recommit to a cell cycle-like process during neuronal aging and under disease conditions. Because of the rare existence and random localization of these cells in the brain, their molecular profiles and disease-specific heterogeneities remain unclear. Through a bioinformatics approach that allows integrated analyses of multiple single-nucleus transcriptome datasets from human brain samples, these rare cell populations were identified and selected for further c ..read more

by Paula F. Zamora, Thomas G. Reidy, Catherine R. Armbruster, Ming Sun, Daria Van Tyne, Paul E. Turner, Jonathan L. Koff, Jennifer M. Bomberger Phage therapy is a therapeutic approach to treat multidrug-resistant (MDR) infections that employs lytic bacteriophages (phages) to eliminate bacteria. Despite the abundant evidence for its success as an antimicrobial in Eastern Europe, there is scarce data regarding its effects on the human host. Here, we aimed to understand how lytic phages interact with cells of the airway epithelium, the tissue site that is colonized by bacterial biofilms in numero ..read more

by Wenping Zeng, Canjun Li, Ruikun Wu, Xingguo Yang, Qingyan Wang, Bingqian Lin, Yanan Wei, Hao Li, Ge Shan, Lili Qu, Chunlei Cang Lysosomes are degradation centers of cells and intracellular hubs of signal transduction, nutrient sensing, and autophagy regulation. Dysfunction of lysosomes contributes to a variety of diseases, such as lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) and neurodegeneration, but the mechanisms are not well understood. Altering lysosomal activity and examining its impact on the occurrence and development of disease is an important strategy for studying lysosome-related diseases ..read more

by Ellinor O. Alseth, Rafael Custodio, Sarah A. Sundius, Rachel A. Kuske, Sam P. Brown, Edze R. Westra Where there are bacteria, there will be bacteriophages. These viruses are known to be important players in shaping the wider microbial community in which they are embedded, with potential implications for human health. On the other hand, bacteria possess a range of distinct immune mechanisms that provide protection against bacteriophages, including the mutation or complete loss of the phage receptor, and CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity. While our previous work showed how a microbial community ma ..read more

by Meghal Desai, Hemant, Ankita Deo, Jagyanseni Naik, Prathamesh Dhamale, Avinash Kshirsagar, Tania Bose, Amitabha Majumdar Orb2 the Drosophila homolog of cytoplasmic polyadenylation element binding (CPEB) protein forms prion-like oligomers. These oligomers consist of Orb2A and Orb2B isoforms and their formation is dependent on the oligomerization of the Orb2A isoform. Drosophila with a mutation diminishing Orb2A’s prion-like oligomerization forms long-term memory but fails to maintain it over time. Since this prion-like oligomerization of Orb2A plays a crucial role in the maintenance of memor ..read more

by Gokul Gopinathan, Qian Xu, Xianghong Luan, Thomas G. H. Diekwisch The densely packed centromeric heterochromatin at minor and major satellites is comprised of H3K9me2/3 histones, the heterochromatin protein HP1α, and histone variants. In the present study, we sought to determine the mechanisms by which condensed heterochromatin at major and minor satellites stabilized by the chromatin factor CFDP1 affects the activity of the small GTPase Ran as a requirement for spindle formation. CFDP1 colocalized with heterochromatin at major and minor satellites and was essential for the structural stabi ..read more

by John P. McCutcheon, Arkadiy I. Garber, Noah Spencer, Jessica M. Warren The move from a free-living environment to a long-term residence inside a host eukaryotic cell has profound effects on bacterial function. While endosymbioses are found in many eukaryotes, from protists to plants to animals, the bacteria that form these host-beneficial relationships are even more diverse. Endosymbiont genomes can become radically smaller than their free-living relatives, and their few remaining genes show extreme compositional biases. The details of how these reduced and divergent gene sets work, and how ..read more

by Emmi Schlicht, Carol Gilsenan, Peter Santema, Agnes Türk, Andrea Wittenzellner, Bart Kempenaers In animals, reproductive performance typically improves over time early in life. Several ultimate and proximate mechanisms may contribute to such an age-related improvement and these mechanisms can act in a relative or in an absolute sense. Low performance of young individuals may be the consequence of a comparison or competition with older individuals (relative), or it may be due to specific traits of young individuals and be unrelated to the presence of older competitors (absolute). Here, we pe ..read more

by Alexander Strudwick Young Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) can be affected by confounding. Family-based GWAS uses random, within-family genetic variation to avoid this. A study in PLOS Biology details how different sources of confounding affect GWAS and whether family-based designs offer a solution. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) can be affected by confounding, but family-based GWASs use random, within-family genetic variation to avoid this. This Primer explores a study in PLOS Biology which asks how different sources of confounding affect GWASs and whether family-based desi ..read more