Research articles

Alberto Orta et al. demonstrate that frequent mosaic loss of chromosome Y (LOY) observed in aging men might also be present in rats. They show that, like in humans, LOY in rats is associated with aging, but is not dependent on environmental stressors, and may be a natural process in placental mammals.

Using in silico modeling, Li et al. identify a selective inhibitor for aldehyde dehydrogenase isoform ALDH1A3, which is highly expressed in mesenchymal glioma stem cells and therefore a potential drug target. They solve the structure of the ALDH1A3/MCI-INI-3 inhibitor complex and find that the inhibitor is as efficient as ALDH1A3 depletion in preventing retinoic acid biosynthesis.

Jiao Li et al. evaluate the genetic basis underlying white matter functional connectivity variabilities in healthy human subjects. Their results shed light on how transcriptomic and cellular signatures converge to relate to macroscale brain specialization.

Sam Ng et al. combine direct electrostimulation and population-based streamline tractography to map the disconnectivity fingerprints characterizing dissociated forms of alexia in neurosurgical patients with tumors close to the visual word form area. Their data sheds light on the anatomical background for cognitive and neurocomputational models of reading

Sanjurjo et al investigate the role of galectins in immunomodulation, reporting that chemokines can control galectin immunomodulatory function through a mechanism involving galectin-chemokine binding pairs. Specifically, the authors find that CXCL4 binding changes the galectin-1 carbohydrate binding site, altering the glycan-binding affinity and specificity of galectin-1, as well as increasing the apoptotic activity of galectin-1 on CD8⁺ T cells.

Cem Sievers et al. performed genomic and transcriptomic analysis in human recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP). They found that RRP harbors few genomic alterations, but that distinct transcriptional subtypes correlate with HPV gene expression and frequency of clinically-indicated interventions.

Li et al. report the PnmB protease as a moonlighting protein in the fungus Aspergillus nidulans as both a secreted protease that degrades extracellular nutrients and an intracellular protease that controls the turnover of the co-repressor NmrA. These results reveal a regulatory mechanism of the drivers of the nitrogen starvation response, as well as the functional evolution of a protease gene for transcriptional regulation and extracellular nutrient breakdown.

Hitomi Matsuzaki et al. test the effect of reversing the H19/Igf2 imprinting control region (ICR) in mice. Their results suggest that the polarity of the ICR is involved in controlling imprinted H19 expression in both parental alleles, dependent or independent of DNA methylation.

Robert Kozol et al. developed two zebrafish Shank3 models to characterize the basis of sensorimotor deficits, which are a consistent feature in SHANK3-deficient human patients (Phelan-McDermid Syndrome). Their results suggest that hindbrain regions require Shank3 for normal responses to light, and provide further insight toward the biology of sensory deficits in Shank3 mutants.

Larison et al. report epigenetic aging models in plains zebras (Equus quagga) using the epigenetic clock and epigenetic pacemaker approaches. Their epigenetic clock allows age to be accurately estimated in endangered sister species, and the pacemaker model identifies an association between inbreeding and accelerating aging.

Transcription factor NF-ĸB is a key regulator of immunity in mammals, but its function in protists like Capsaspora and choanoflagellates is not known. Here, Leah Williams et al. characterize and compare the structure, activity, and regulation of NF-ĸB from Capsaspora and one choanoflagellate, providing further insight into the origins of NF-ĸB.

Teaching an assistive robotic manipulator to move objects in a cluttered table requires demonstrations from expert operators, but what if the experts are individuals with motor disabilities? Batzianoulis et al. propose a learning approach which combines robot autonomy and a brain-computer interfacing that decodes whether the generated trajectories meet the user’s criteria, and show how their system enables the robot to learn individual user’s preferred behaviors using less than five demonstrations that are not necessarily optimal.

Using a mouse model for Rett syndrome (RTT), Neier et al analyze gut microbiome and metabolome profiles during disease progression. They show that pathophysiology and progression of RTT is different in females than in males and suggest that changes in the microbiome and metabolism of the gastrointestinal tract influence disease progression.

Patel et al. investigate the role of RNA sequence/structure motif ‘Packaging Signals’ (PSs) in regulating the assembly of an HBV genome transcript using an in vitro assay containing only core protein (Cp) and RNA. They show that RNA PSs regulate assembly of HBV genomic transcripts in vitro, and therefore may play similar roles in vivo, in concert with other molecular factors.

Atanackovic and coauthors screen COVID-19 patients for antibodies against 9 different SARS-CoV-2 proteins observing responses against the spike (S) proteins, the receptor-binding domain (RBD), and the nucleocapsid (N) protein which were of the IgG1 and IgG3 subtypes. They also characterised immune responses in these patients and their findings will help to identify the most relevant component of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 humoral immune response as well as assist the design of immunomonitoring methods for anti-COVID-19 vaccines.

Hong et al. describe a new transgene expression system, IQ-Switch, and its variants and characterize their applications in cell culture and zebrafish systems. They show that IQ-Switch system has several advantages over the previous inducible transgene expression switches, including the low toxicity, tunability of expression levels and low levels of gene silencing.

Hartung & Wang et al. use fMRI data from 52 participants to explore two aspects of aesthetic experiences during narrative engagement - literariness and narrative fluctuations in appraised emotional intensity. Their results demonstrate a neural dissociation in processing literary form and emotional content in stories and generate questions about the function of and interaction between attention, social cognition, and semantic systems during literary engagement.

In order to establish if the degradation of sensorimotor functions underlies the stress-associated disruption of skilful performance, Furuya et al examined participants undergoing a piano playing task under stress. Their data suggests the occurrence of a stress-induced transition from feedforward to feedback control, which can be mitigated through sensorimotor training involving piano practice while volitionally ignoring the artificially delayed provision of auditory feedback.

Iuchi and Paulo identify a large metabolic complex for macromolecule biogenesis composed of numerous RNA processing proteins in HEK293T cells, which the authors term the RNAmetasome. The authors identify the complex by mass-spec using ELMSAN1 as bait and utilize reciprocal immunoprecipitation and immunocytochemistry for validation, and find that MKI67, GNL2, and MDN1 have important roles organizing the RNAmetasome network.

Masachika Ikegami and Shinji Kohsaka et al. develop MicroSEC, a computational pipeline to filter sequencing artifacts from archival formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded samples. Given that archival FFPE tissue is of great interest for genomic analysis, but difficult to reliably analyze, this tool may improve the ability of researchers to probe sequencing data from these samples.