MEETING REVIEW
- Symbiosis in the microbial world: from ecology to genome evolution
Summary: At a recent Company of Biologists workshop, evolutionary biologists discussed the major outstanding questions in symbiosis research.
RESEARCH ARTICLES
- Site-1 protease regulates skeletal stem cell population and osteogenic differentiation in mice
Summary: S1P governs a fundamental aspect of skeletal development and homeostasis, mainly the maintenance and osteogenic differentiation of skeletogenic stem cells that are a source of osteoblast and chondrocyte lineages.
- Mechanical properties of silk of the Australian golden orb weavers Nephila pilipes and Nephila plumipes
Summary: Spider silk is a remarkably tough and extensible biomaterial. We identified macrostuctural and mechanical differences in outer web frame silk of two Australian orb-weaving spiders.
- Ecdysone signaling regulates specification of neurons with a male-specific neurite in Drosophila
Summary: The insect molting hormone ecdysone determines whether a single neuron develops a sex-specific structure, through crosstalk with signaling elements in a pathway dedicated to the sex-fate determination.
- Timing and context of dolphin clicks during and after mine simulator detection and marking in the open ocean
Summary: Dolphins wore cameras so we could hear them and watch them mark mine simulators. We observed rhythmic click trains, victory squeals, and click packets with their behavioral context.
- The histone deacetylase HDAC1 positively regulates Notch signaling during Drosophila wing development
Summary: The histone deacetylase HDAC1 acts as a positive regulator of Notch signaling during Drosophila wing development, and its depletion causes wing notches on the margin of adult wing.
- Spermine modulates fungal morphogenesis and activates plasma membrane H+-ATPase during yeast to hyphae transition
Summary: This study presents a new mechanistic model for the integrative role of the polyamine spermine and hormone auxin in the signaling of yeast-to-hypha transition, filling an important gap in fungal morphogenesis.
- Metabolism of the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, is influenced by salinity and modulates survival to the Ostreid herpesvirus OsHV-1
Summary: Environmental salinity influences energetic reserves, enzyme activity, membrane fatty acids of the Pacific oyster and modulates survival to viral infection.
- Sustained exercise-trained juvenile black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) at a moderate water velocity exhibit improved aerobic swimming performance and increased postprandial metabolic responses
Summary: Sustained exercise training at a moderate water velocity had positive effects on aerobic swimming performance and postprandial metabolic responses in juvenile black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus).
- Human hepatocyte depletion in the presence of HIV-1 infection in dual reconstituted humanized mice
Summary: We describe a model that recapitulates multiple components of liver damage by HIV-1 infection as in humans, including reduced liver CD4+ cells, albumin levels, liver immune activation and human hepatocyte survival.
- How does the snakehead Channa argus survive in air? The combined roles of the suprabranchial chamber and physiological regulations during aerial respiration
Summary: The aerial survival of the northern snakehead could be involved with suprabranchial chamber respiration, and also with physiological regulations.
- Plastid translation is essential for lateral root stem cell patterning in Arabidopsis thaliana
Summary: Successful plastid gene expression is required for stem cell patterning in lateral root primordia as revealed by genetic and pharmacological impairment of plastid translation.
- A transgenic zebrafish model for the in vivo study of the blood and choroid plexus brain barriers using claudin 5
Summary: A novel transgenic zebrafish, using claudin 5a, represents an ideal model to study blood brain barrier and choroid plexus barrier development and function in vivo.
- Gemin4 is an essential gene in mice, and its overexpression in human cells causes relocalization of the SMN complex to the nucleoplasm
Summary: Gemin4 loss-of-function is recessive lethal in mice, whereas in cell culture its overexpression results in a dominant, gain-of-function relocalization of SMN and other Gemin proteins to the nucleus.