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A molecular arms race is progressively being unveiled between prokaryotes and viruses. Prokaryotes utilize CRISPR-mediated adaptive immune systems to kill the invading phages and mobile genetic elements, and i...
Much of the structure-based mechanistic understandings of the function of SLC6A neurotransmitter transporters emerged from the study of their bacterial LeuT-fold homologs. It has become evident, however, that ...
Eukaryotes evolved from the symbiotic association of at least two prokaryotic partners, and a good deal is known about the timings, mechanisms, and dynamics of these evolutionary steps. Recently, it was shown ...
The Golgi apparatus is a central meeting point for the endocytic and exocytic systems in eukaryotic cells, and the organelle’s dysfunction results in human disease. Its characteristic morphology of multiple di...
The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Biology 2018 16:35
Cell migration is essential for development and tissue repair, but it also contributes to disease. Rho GTPases regulate cell migration, but a comprehensive analysis of how each Rho signalling component affects...
Multiple RNA samples are frequently processed together and often mixed before multiplex sequencing in the same sequencing run. While different samples can be separated post sequencing using sample barcodes, th...
Associations between traits are prevalent in nature, occurring across a diverse range of taxa and traits. Individual traits may co-evolve with one other, and these correlations can be driven by factors intrins...
G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) heteromeric complexes have distinct properties from homomeric GPCRs, giving rise to new receptor functionalities. Adenosine receptors (A1R or A2AR) can form A1R-A2AR heteromers (...
The ability to efficiently visualize and manipulate chromosomes is fundamental to understanding the genome architecture of organisms. Conventional chromosome preparation protocols developed for mammalian cells...
The need for high-throughput, precise, and meaningful methods for measuring behavior has been amplified by our recent successes in measuring and manipulating neural circuitry. The largest challenges associated...
Paraphrasing Dobzhansky’s famous dictum, I discuss how interrogating cancer through the lens of evolution has transformed our understanding of its development, causality and treatment resistance. The emerging ...
Stomata are pores on plant epidermis that facilitate gas exchange and water evaporation between plants and the environment. Given the central role of stomata in photosynthesis and water-use efficiency, two vit...
In plants, the shoot apical meristem (SAM) has two main functions, involving the production of all aerial organs on the one hand and self-maintenance on the other, allowing the production of organs during the ...
Mammalian small intestinal tight junctions (TJ) link epithelial cells to one another and function as a permselective barrier, strictly modulating the passage of ions and macromolecules through the pore and lea...
Environmental stressors induce changes in endocrine state, leading to energy re-allocation from reproduction to survival. Female Drosophila melanogaster respond to thermal and nutrient stressors by arresting egg ...
Caenorhabditis elegans neurons have recently been found to throw out cellular debris for remote degradation and/or storage, adding an “extracellular garbage elimination” option to known intracellular protein and ...
Sex determination relies on a hierarchically structured network of genes, and is one of the most plastic processes in evolution. The evolution of sex-determining genes within a network, by neo- or sub-function...
Polyploidization is one of the major evolutionary processes that shape eukaryotic genomes, being particularly common in plants. Polyploids can arise through direct genome doubling within a species (autopolyplo...
Entry into mitosis triggers profound changes in cell shape and cytoskeletal organisation. Here, by studying microtubule remodelling in human flat mitotic cells, we identify a two-step process of interphase mic...
The bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling gradient is central for dorsoventral patterning in amphibian embryos. This gradient is established through the interaction of several BMPs and BMP antagonists and...
The mouse Grueneberg ganglion (GG) is an olfactory subsystem specialized in the detection of volatile heterocyclic compounds signalling danger. The signalling pathways transducing the danger signals are only b...
Efficient movement of proteins across membranes is required for cell health. The translocation process is particularly challenging when the channel in the membrane through which proteins must pass is narrow—su...
Animal opsins are light-sensitive G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that enable optogenetic control over the major heterotrimeric G-protein signaling pathways in animal cells. As such, opsins have potential ...
Genetically encoded calcium ion (Ca2+) indicators (GECIs) are indispensable tools for measuring Ca2+ dynamics and neuronal activities in vitro and in vivo. Red fluorescent protein (RFP)-based GECIs have inherent ...
The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Biology 2019 17:85
Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes are powerful model organisms, yet quantification of visible phenotypes is still often labor-intensive, biased, and error-prone. We developed WorMachine, a three-step MATLAB-based ...
The five most pervasive anthropogenic threats to biodiversity are over-exploitation, habitat changes, climate change, invasive species, and pollution. Since all of these threats can affect intraspecific biodiv...
Eukaryotic genome assembly remains a challenge in part due to the prevalence of complex DNA repeats. This is a particularly acute problem for holocentric nematodes because of the large number of satellite DNA ...
Structural variation contributes substantially to polymorphism within species. Chromosomal rearrangements that impact genes can lead to functional variation among individuals and influence the expression of ph...
Transcription factors (TFs), the key players in transcriptional regulation, have attracted great experimental attention, yet the functions of most human TFs remain poorly understood. Recent capabilities in gen...
Nitric oxide (NO) has been highlighted as an important agent in cancer-related events. Although the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) isoform has received most attention, recent studies in the literature ...
Insights from inherited forms of parkinsonism suggest that insufficient mitophagy may be one etiology of the disease. PINK1/Parkin-dependent mitophagy, which helps maintain a healthy mitochondrial network, is ...
Phthiocerol dimycocerosates (PDIM), glycolipids found on the outer surface of virulent members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) complex, are a major contributing factor to the pathogenesis of Mtb. Myelocyt...
Drug addiction is a chronic brain disorder characterized by the compulsive use of drugs. The study of chronic morphine-induced adaptation in the brain and its functional significance is of importance to unders...
The trillions of microbes living in the gut—the gut microbiota—play an important role in human biology and disease. While much has been done to explore its diversity, a full understanding of our microbiomes de...
Over the past decade, there has been a pronounced shift in the study of host–microbe associations, with recognition that many of these associations are beneficial, and often critical, for a diverse array of ho...
A dearth of laboratory tests to study actual human approach-avoidance behavior has complicated translational research on anxiety. The elevated plus-maze (EPM) is the gold standard to assess approach-avoidance ...
Host sexual dimorphism is being increasingly recognized to generate strong differences in the outcome of infectious disease, but the mechanisms underlying immunological differences between males and females re...
The cell envelope is essential for the survival of Gram-negative bacteria. This specialised membrane is densely packed with outer membrane proteins (OMPs), which perform a variety of functions. How OMPs fold i...
To understand how information flows and is used in the human brain, we must map neural structures at all levels, providing visualizations similar to those of Google Earth for continents, countries, cities, and...
Clonal microbial populations often harbor rare phenotypic variants that are typically hidden within the majority of the remaining cells, but are crucial for the population’s resilience to external perturbation...
Intestinal bacteria are known to regulate bile acid (BA) homeostasis via intestinal biotransformation of BAs and stimulation of the expression of fibroblast growth factor 19 through intestinal nuclear farnesoi...
The disulfide relay system found in the intermembrane space (IMS) of mitochondria is an essential pathway for the import and oxidative folding of IMS proteins. Erv1, an essential member of this pathway, has be...
Telomere length heterogeneity has been detected in various cell types, including stem cells and cancer cells. Cell heterogeneity in pluripotent stem cells, such as embryonic stem cells (ESCs), is of particular...
The plastids, including chloroplasts, are a group of interrelated organelles that confer photoautotrophic growth and the unique metabolic capabilities that are characteristic of plant systems. Plastid biogenes...
Climate change causes the breakdown of the symbiotic relationships between reef-building corals and their photosynthetic symbionts (genus Symbiodinium), with thermal anomalies in 2015–2016 triggering the most wid...
Dorsal spine reduction in threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is a classic example of recurrent skeletal evolution in nature. Sticklebacks in marine environments typically have long spines that form ...
The idea that much of our genome is irrelevant to fitness—is not the product of positive natural selection at the organismal level—remains viable. Claims to the contrary, and specifically that the notion of “j...
Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-alpha (PPARα) is a ubiquitously expressed nuclear receptor. The role of endogenous PPARα in retinal neuronal homeostasis is unknown. Retinal photoreceptors are the hi...
Smad4 is a critical effector of TGF-β signaling that regulates a variety of cellular functions. However, its role in the brain has rarely been studied. Here, we examined the molecular mechanisms underlying the...
One of evolution’s most important achievements is the development and radiation of multicellular organisms with different types of cells. Complex multicellularity has evolved several times in eukaryotes; yet, ...
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