ALBERT

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Maxmen, Amy -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Mar 25;351(6280):1378-80. doi: 10.1126/science.351.6280.1378.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27013707" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: To explore the distinct genotypic and phenotypic states of melanoma tumors, we applied single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to 4645 single cells isolated from 19 patients, profiling malignant, immune, stromal, and endothelial cells. Malignant cells within the same tumor displayed transcriptional heterogeneity associated with the cell cycle, spatial context, and a drug-resistance program. In particular, all tumors harbored malignant cells from two distinct transcriptional cell states, such that tumors characterized by high levels of the MITF transcription factor also contained cells with low MITF and elevated levels of the AXL kinase. Single-cell analyses suggested distinct tumor microenvironmental patterns, including cell-to-cell interactions. Analysis of tumor-infiltrating T cells revealed exhaustion programs, their connection to T cell activation and clonal expansion, and their variability across patients. Overall, we begin to unravel the cellular ecosystem of tumors and how single-cell genomics offers insights with implications for both targeted and immune therapies.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tirosh, Itay -- Izar, Benjamin -- Prakadan, Sanjay M -- Wadsworth, Marc H 2nd -- Treacy, Daniel -- Trombetta, John J -- Rotem, Asaf -- Rodman, Christopher -- Lian, Christine -- Murphy, George -- Fallahi-Sichani, Mohammad -- Dutton-Regester, Ken -- Lin, Jia-Ren -- Cohen, Ofir -- Shah, Parin -- Lu, Diana -- Genshaft, Alex S -- Hughes, Travis K -- Ziegler, Carly G K -- Kazer, Samuel W -- Gaillard, Aleth -- Kolb, Kellie E -- Villani, Alexandra-Chloe -- Johannessen, Cory M -- Andreev, Aleksandr Y -- Van Allen, Eliezer M -- Bertagnolli, Monica -- Sorger, Peter K -- Sullivan, Ryan J -- Flaherty, Keith T -- Frederick, Dennie T -- Jane-Valbuena, Judit -- Yoon, Charles H -- Rozenblatt-Rosen, Orit -- Shalek, Alex K -- Regev, Aviv -- Garraway, Levi A -- 1U24CA180922/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- DP2 OD020839/OD/NIH HHS/ -- K99 CA194163/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- K99CA194163/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- P01CA163222/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- P30-CA14051/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- P50GM107618/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R35CA197737/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- U54CA112962/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 8;352(6282):189-96. doi: 10.1126/science.aad0501.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Center for Cancer Precision Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. bizar@partners.org aregev@broadinstitute.org levi_garraway@dfci.harvard.edu. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Department of Chemistry, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Center for Cancer Precision Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. ; Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ; Program in Therapeutic Sciences, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Department of Genetics and Computational Biology, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. ; HMS LINCS Center and Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ; Department of Surgical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Department of Surgical Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ; Program in Therapeutic Sciences, Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. HMS LINCS Center and Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Ludwig Center at Harvard, Boston, MA 02215, USA. ; Division of Medical Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Department of Chemistry, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Department of Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Department of Biology and Koch Institute, MIT, Boston, MA 02142, USA. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA. bizar@partners.org aregev@broadinstitute.org levi_garraway@dfci.harvard.edu. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. bizar@partners.org aregev@broadinstitute.org levi_garraway@dfci.harvard.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27124452" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Computation can be performed in living cells by DNA-encoded circuits that process sensory information and control biological functions. Their construction is time-intensive, requiring manual part assembly and balancing of regulator expression. We describe a design environment, Cello, in which a user writes Verilog code that is automatically transformed into a DNA sequence. Algorithms build a circuit diagram, assign and connect gates, and simulate performance. Reliable circuit design requires the insulation of gates from genetic context, so that they function identically when used in different circuits. We used Cello to design 60 circuits forEscherichia coli(880,000 base pairs of DNA), for which each DNA sequence was built as predicted by the software with no additional tuning. Of these, 45 circuits performed correctly in every output state (up to 10 regulators and 55 parts), and across all circuits 92% of the output states functioned as predicted. Design automation simplifies the incorporation of genetic circuits into biotechnology projects that require decision-making, control, sensing, or spatial organization.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Nielsen, Alec A K -- Der, Bryan S -- Shin, Jonghyeon -- Vaidyanathan, Prashant -- Paralanov, Vanya -- Strychalski, Elizabeth A -- Ross, David -- Densmore, Douglas -- Voigt, Christopher A -- P50 GM098792/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 1;352(6281):aac7341. doi: 10.1126/science.aac7341.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Synthetic Biology Center, Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. ; Synthetic Biology Center, Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Biological Design Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA. ; Biological Design Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA. ; Biosystems and Biomaterials Division, Material Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20817, USA. ; Synthetic Biology Center, Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. cavoigt@gmail.com.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27034378" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pennisi, Elizabeth -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 15;351(6270):214-5. doi: 10.1126/science.351.6270.214. Epub 2016 Jan 14.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26816357" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Ball, Steven G -- Bhattacharya, Debashish -- Weber, Andreas P M -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Feb 12;351(6274):659-60. doi: 10.1126/science.aad8864.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Universite de Lille CNRS, UMR 8576-UGSF-Unite de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle, F 59000 Lille, France. ; Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. debash.bhattacharya@gmail.com. ; Institute for Plant Biochemistry, Center of Excellence on Plant Sciences, Heinrich-Heine-University, Universitatsstrasse 1, D-40225 Dusseldorf, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26912842" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Sequencing of exomes and genomes has revealed abundant genetic variation affecting the coding sequences of human transcription factors (TFs), but the consequences of such variation remain largely unexplored. We developed a computational, structure-based approach to evaluate TF variants for their impact on DNA binding activity and used universal protein-binding microarrays to assay sequence-specific DNA binding activity across 41 reference and 117 variant alleles found in individuals of diverse ancestries and families with Mendelian diseases. We found 77 variants in 28 genes that affect DNA binding affinity or specificity and identified thousands of rare alleles likely to alter the DNA binding activity of human sequence-specific TFs. Our results suggest that most individuals have unique repertoires of TF DNA binding activities, which may contribute to phenotypic variation.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4825693/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4825693/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Barrera, Luis A -- Vedenko, Anastasia -- Kurland, Jesse V -- Rogers, Julia M -- Gisselbrecht, Stephen S -- Rossin, Elizabeth J -- Woodard, Jaie -- Mariani, Luca -- Kock, Kian Hong -- Inukai, Sachi -- Siggers, Trevor -- Shokri, Leila -- Gordan, Raluca -- Sahni, Nidhi -- Cotsapas, Chris -- Hao, Tong -- Yi, Song -- Kellis, Manolis -- Daly, Mark J -- Vidal, Marc -- Hill, David E -- Bulyk, Martha L -- P50 HG004233/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HG003985/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Mar 25;351(6280):1450-4. doi: 10.1126/science.aad2257. Epub 2016 Mar 24.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Committee on Higher Degrees in Biophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. ; Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ; Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Committee on Higher Degrees in Biophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. ; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. ; Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. ; Center for Cancer Systems Biology (CCSB), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ; Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. ; Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. ; Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Center for Human Genetics Research and Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ; Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Committee on Higher Degrees in Biophysics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Center for Cancer Systems Biology (CCSB), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27013732" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hulme, Philip E -- Le Roux, Johannes J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 22;352(6284):422. doi: 10.1126/science.352.6284.422-b. Epub 2016 Apr 21.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉The Bio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Canterbury, New Zealand. philip.hulme@lincoln.ac.nz. ; The Bio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, Canterbury, New Zealand. Centre for Invasion Biology, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, Matieland 7602, South Africa.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27102471" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Recent studies have implicated long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) as regulators of many important biological processes. Here we report on the identification and characterization of a lncRNA, lnc13, that harbors a celiac disease-associated haplotype block and represses expression of certain inflammatory genes under homeostatic conditions. Lnc13 regulates gene expression by binding to hnRNPD, a member of a family of ubiquitously expressed heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs). Upon stimulation, lnc13 levels are reduced, thereby allowing increased expression of the repressed genes. Lnc13 levels are significantly decreased in small intestinal biopsy samples from patients with celiac disease, which suggests that down-regulation of lnc13 may contribute to the inflammation seen in this disease. Furthermore, the lnc13 disease-associated variant binds hnRNPD less efficiently than its wild-type counterpart, thus helping to explain how these single-nucleotide polymorphisms contribute to celiac disease.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Castellanos-Rubio, Ainara -- Fernandez-Jimenez, Nora -- Kratchmarov, Radomir -- Luo, Xiaobing -- Bhagat, Govind -- Green, Peter H R -- Schneider, Robert -- Kiledjian, Megerditch -- Bilbao, Jose Ramon -- Ghosh, Sankar -- R01-AI093985/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01-DK102180/DK/NIDDK NIH HHS/ -- R01-GM067005/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R37-AI33443/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 1;352(6281):91-5. doi: 10.1126/science.aad0467.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY 10032, USA. ; Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology, and Animal Physiology, University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), BioCruces Research Institute, Leioa 48940, Basque Country, Spain. ; Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY 10032, USA. ; Center for Celiac Disease, Department of Medicine, Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY 10032, USA. Alexandria Center for Life Sciences, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA. ; Alexandria Center for Life Sciences, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA. ; Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. ; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY 10032, USA. sg2715@columbia.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27034373" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Sarrazin, Francois -- Lecomte, Jane -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 22;352(6284):422-3. doi: 10.1126/science.352.6284.422-c. Epub 2016 Apr 21.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Sorbonne Universites, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, CESCO, UMR 7204, 75005 Paris, France. sarrazin@mnhn.fr. ; Ecologie Systematique Evolution, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS, AgroParisTech, Universite Paris-Saclay, 91400 Orsay, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27102472" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Dantzer, Ben -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Feb 20;347(6224):822-3. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa6480.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Psychology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. dantzer@umich.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25700499" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Mervis, Jeffrey -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Mar 6;347(6226):1054. doi: 10.1126/science.347.6226.1054.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25745139" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: A central process in evolution is the recruitment of genes to regulatory networks. We engineered immotile strains of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens that lack flagella due to deletion of the regulatory gene fleQ. Under strong selection for motility, these bacteria consistently regained flagella within 96 hours via a two-step evolutionary pathway. Step 1 mutations increase intracellular levels of phosphorylated NtrC, a distant homolog of FleQ, which begins to commandeer control of the fleQ regulon at the cost of disrupting nitrogen uptake and assimilation. Step 2 is a switch-of-function mutation that redirects NtrC away from nitrogen uptake and toward its novel function as a flagellar regulator. Our results demonstrate that natural selection can rapidly rewire regulatory networks in very few, repeatable mutational steps.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Taylor, Tiffany B -- Mulley, Geraldine -- Dills, Alexander H -- Alsohim, Abdullah S -- McGuffin, Liam J -- Studholme, David J -- Silby, Mark W -- Brockhurst, Michael A -- Johnson, Louise J -- Jackson, Robert W -- BB/J015350/1/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- BB/K003240/1/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- WT097835MF/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- WT101650MA/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Feb 27;347(6225):1014-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1259145.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AJ, UK. ; Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747, USA. ; School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AJ, UK. Department of Plant Production and Protection, Qassim University, Qassim, P.O. Box 6622, Saudi Arabia. ; College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QD, UK. ; Department of Biology, University of York, Wentworth Way, York YO10 5DD, UK. ; School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AJ, UK. l.j.johnson@reading.ac.uk. ; School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AJ, UK. The University of Akureyri, Borgir vid Nordurslod, IS-600 Akureyri, Iceland.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25722415" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Sedimentary basins in eastern Africa preserve a record of continental rifting and contain important fossil assemblages for interpreting hominin evolution. However, the record of hominin evolution between 3 and 2.5 million years ago (Ma) is poorly documented in surface outcrops, particularly in Afar, Ethiopia. Here we present the discovery of a 2.84- to 2.58-million-year-old fossil and hominin-bearing sediments in the Ledi-Geraru research area of Afar, Ethiopia, that have produced the earliest record of the genus Homo. Vertebrate fossils record a faunal turnover indicative of more open and probably arid habitats than those reconstructed earlier in this region, which is in broad agreement with hypotheses addressing the role of environmental forcing in hominin evolution at this time. Geological analyses constrain depositional and structural models of Afar and date the LD 350-1 Homo mandible to 2.80 to 2.75 Ma.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉DiMaggio, Erin N -- Campisano, Christopher J -- Rowan, John -- Dupont-Nivet, Guillaume -- Deino, Alan L -- Bibi, Faysal -- Lewis, Margaret E -- Souron, Antoine -- Garello, Dominique -- Werdelin, Lars -- Reed, Kaye E -- Arrowsmith, J Ramon -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Mar 20;347(6228):1355-9. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa1415. Epub 2015 Mar 4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. dimaggio@psu.edu kreed@asu.edu. ; Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. ; CNRS Geosciences Rennes, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042 Rennes, France. ; Berkeley Geochronology Center, 2455 Ridge Road, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA. ; Museum fur Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany. ; Biology Program, Stockton University, 101 Vera King Farris Drive, Galloway, NJ 08205, USA. ; Human Evolution Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 3101 Valley Life Sciences Building, Berkeley, CA, 94720-3160, USA. ; School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. ; Swedish Museum of Natural History, Department of Palaeobiology, Box 50007, SE-10405 Stockholm, Sweden.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25739409" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The nonrandom distribution of meiotic recombination shapes heredity and genetic diversification. Theoretically, hotspots--favored sites of recombination initiation--either evolve rapidly toward extinction or are conserved, especially if they are chromosomal features under selective constraint, such as promoters. We tested these theories by comparing genome-wide recombination initiation maps from widely divergent Saccharomyces species. We find that hotspots frequently overlap with promoters in the species tested, and consequently, hotspot positions are well conserved. Remarkably, the relative strength of individual hotspots is also highly conserved, as are larger-scale features of the distribution of recombination initiation. This stability, not predicted by prior models, suggests that the particular shape of the yeast recombination landscape is adaptive and helps in understanding evolutionary dynamics of recombination in other species.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4656144/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4656144/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lam, Isabel -- Keeney, Scott -- F31 GM097861/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P30 CA008748/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM058673/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 20;350(6263):932-7. doi: 10.1126/science.aad0814.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA. Molecular Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA. ; Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA. Molecular Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA. s-keeney@ski.mskcc.org.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26586758" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Understanding the evolution of sex determination in plants requires identifying the mechanisms underlying the transition from monoecious plants, where male and female flowers coexist, to unisexual individuals found in dioecious species. We show that in melon and cucumber, the androecy gene controls female flower development and encodes a limiting enzyme of ethylene biosynthesis, ACS11. ACS11 is expressed in phloem cells connected to flowers programmed to become female, and ACS11 loss-of-function mutants lead to male plants (androecy). CmACS11 represses the expression of the male promoting gene CmWIP1 to control the development and the coexistence of male and female flowers in monoecious species. Because monoecy can lead to dioecy, we show how a combination of alleles of CmACS11 and CmWIP1 can create artificial dioecy.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Boualem, Adnane -- Troadec, Christelle -- Camps, Celine -- Lemhemdi, Afef -- Morin, Halima -- Sari, Marie-Agnes -- Fraenkel-Zagouri, Rina -- Kovalski, Irina -- Dogimont, Catherine -- Perl-Treves, Rafael -- Bendahmane, Abdelhafid -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 6;350(6261):688-91. doi: 10.1126/science.aac8370.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Institute of Plant Sciences Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Universite Paris-Sud, Universite d'Evry, Universite Paris-Diderot, Batiment 630, 91405, Orsay, France. ; Laboratoire de Chimie et Biochimie Pharmacologiques et Toxicologiques, CNRS, UMR 8601, Universite Rene Descartes, Paris, France. ; The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. ; INRA, UR 1052, Unite de Genetique et d'Amelioration des Fruits et Legumes, BP 94, F-84143 Montfavet, France. ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Institute of Plant Sciences Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Universite Paris-Sud, Universite d'Evry, Universite Paris-Diderot, Batiment 630, 91405, Orsay, France. bendahm@evry.inra.fr.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26542573" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: An important question in ecology is how mechanistic processes occurring among individuals drive large-scale patterns of community formation and change. Here we show that in two species of bluebirds, cycles of replacement of one by the other emerge as an indirect consequence of maternal influence on offspring behavior in response to local resource availability. Sampling across broad temporal and spatial scales, we found that western bluebirds, the more competitive species, bias the birth order of offspring by sex in a way that influences offspring aggression and dispersal, setting the stage for rapid increases in population density that ultimately result in the replacement of their sister species. Our results provide insight into how predictable community dynamics can occur despite the contingency of local behavioral interactions.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Duckworth, Renee A -- Belloni, Virginia -- Anderson, Samantha R -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Feb 20;347(6224):875-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1260154.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. rad3@email.arizona.edu. ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. Department of Tropical Medicine, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA. ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25700519" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Villmoare et al. (Reports, 20 March 2015, p. 1352) report on a hominin mandible from the Ledi-Geraru research area, Ethiopia, which they claim to be the earliest known representative of the genus Homo. However, certain measurements and observations for Australopithecus sediba mandibles presented are incorrect or are not included in critical aspects of the study. When correctly used, these data demonstrate that specimen LD 350-1 cannot be unequivocally assigned to the genus Homo.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hawks, John -- de Ruiter, Darryl J -- Berger, Lee R -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jun 19;348(6241):1326. doi: 10.1126/science.aab0591.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA. Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. jhawks@wisc.edu. ; Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA. ; Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26089505" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Cope's rule proposes that animal lineages evolve toward larger body size over time. To test this hypothesis across all marine animals, we compiled a data set of body sizes for 17,208 genera of marine animals spanning the past 542 million years. Mean biovolume across genera has increased by a factor of 150 since the Cambrian, whereas minimum biovolume has decreased by less than a factor of 10, and maximum biovolume has increased by more than a factor of 100,000. Neutral drift from a small initial value cannot explain this pattern. Instead, most of the size increase reflects differential diversification across classes, indicating that the pattern does not reflect a simple scaling-up of widespread and persistent selection for larger size within populations.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Heim, Noel A -- Knope, Matthew L -- Schaal, Ellen K -- Wang, Steve C -- Payne, Jonathan L -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Feb 20;347(6224):867-70. doi: 10.1126/science.1260065.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. naheim@stanford.edu. ; Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. ; Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25700517" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are a growing family of immune cells that mirror the phenotypes and functions of T cells. However, in contrast to T cells, ILCs do not express acquired antigen receptors or undergo clonal selection and expansion when stimulated. Instead, ILCs react promptly to signals from infected or injured tissues and produce an array of secreted proteins termed cytokines that direct the developing immune response into one that is adapted to the original insult. The complex cross-talk between microenvironment, ILCs, and adaptive immunity remains to be fully deciphered. Only by understanding these complex regulatory networks can the power of ILCs be controlled or unleashed in order to regulate or enhance immune responses in disease prevention and therapy.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Eberl, Gerard -- Colonna, Marco -- Di Santo, James P -- McKenzie, Andrew N J -- 100963/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- 1U01AI095542/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- MC_U105178805/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- R01DE021255/DE/NIDCR NIH HHS/ -- R21CA16719/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 May 22;348(6237):aaa6566. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa6566. Epub 2015 May 21.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institut Pasteur, Microenvironment and Immunity Unit, 75724 Paris, France. gerard.eberl@pasteur.fr. ; Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. ; Institut Pasteur, Innate Immunity Unit, INSERM U668, 75724 Paris, France. ; Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Francis Crick Avenue, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25999512" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Following the end-Devonian mass extinction (359 million years ago), vertebrates experienced persistent reductions in body size for at least 36 million years. Global shrinkage was not related to oxygen or temperature, which suggests that ecological drivers played a key role in determining the length and direction of size trends. Small, fast-breeding ray-finned fishes, sharks, and tetrapods, most under 1 meter in length from snout to tail, radiated to dominate postextinction ecosystems and vertebrae biodiversity. The few large-bodied, slow-breeding survivors failed to diversify, facing extinction despite earlier evolutionary success. Thus, the recovery interval resembled modern ecological successions in terms of active selection on size and related life histories. Disruption of global vertebrate, and particularly fish, biotas may commonly lead to widespread, long-term reduction in body size, structuring future biodiversity.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Sallan, Lauren -- Galimberti, Andrew K -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 13;350(6262):812-5. doi: 10.1126/science.aac7373.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. lsallan@sas.upenn.edu. ; Department of Biology, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI 49006, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26564854" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Human-like modes of communication, including mutual gaze, in dogs may have been acquired during domestication with humans. We show that gazing behavior from dogs, but not wolves, increased urinary oxytocin concentrations in owners, which consequently facilitated owners' affiliation and increased oxytocin concentration in dogs. Further, nasally administered oxytocin increased gazing behavior in dogs, which in turn increased urinary oxytocin concentrations in owners. These findings support the existence of an interspecies oxytocin-mediated positive loop facilitated and modulated by gazing, which may have supported the coevolution of human-dog bonding by engaging common modes of communicating social attachment.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Nagasawa, Miho -- Mitsui, Shouhei -- En, Shiori -- Ohtani, Nobuyo -- Ohta, Mitsuaki -- Sakuma, Yasuo -- Onaka, Tatsushi -- Mogi, Kazutaka -- Kikusui, Takefumi -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Apr 17;348(6232):333-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1261022. Epub 2015 Apr 16.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology, Azabu University, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan. Department of Physiology, Jichi Medical University, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan. ; Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology, Azabu University, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan. ; University of Tokyo Health Sciences, Tama, Tokyo, Japan. ; Department of Physiology, Jichi Medical University, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan. ; Department of Animal Science and Biotechnology, Azabu University, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan. kikusui@azabu-u.ac.jp.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25883356" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The occurrence of Ebola virus (EBOV) in West Africa during 2013-2015 is unprecedented. Early reports suggested that in this outbreak EBOV is mutating twice as fast as previously observed, which indicates the potential for changes in transmissibility and virulence and could render current molecular diagnostics and countermeasures ineffective. We have determined additional full-length sequences from two clusters of imported EBOV infections into Mali, and we show that the nucleotide substitution rate (9.6 x 10(-4) substitutions per site per year) is consistent with rates observed in Central African outbreaks. In addition, overall variation among all genotypes observed remains low. Thus, our data indicate that EBOV is not undergoing rapid evolution in humans during the current outbreak. This finding has important implications for outbreak response and public health decisions and should alleviate several previously raised concerns.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hoenen, T -- Safronetz, D -- Groseth, A -- Wollenberg, K R -- Koita, O A -- Diarra, B -- Fall, I S -- Haidara, F C -- Diallo, F -- Sanogo, M -- Sarro, Y S -- Kone, A -- Togo, A C G -- Traore, A -- Kodio, M -- Dosseh, A -- Rosenke, K -- de Wit, E -- Feldmann, F -- Ebihara, H -- Munster, V J -- Zoon, K C -- Feldmann, H -- Sow, S -- Intramural NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Apr 3;348(6230):117-9. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa5646. Epub 2015 Mar 26.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Laboratory of Virology, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Hamilton, MT 59840, USA. ; Bioinformatics and Computational Biosciences Branch, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. ; Center of Research and Training for HIV and Tuberculosis, University of Science, Technique and Technologies of Bamako, Mali. ; World Health Organization Office, Bamako, Mali. ; Centre des Operations d'Urgence, Centre pour le Developpement des Vaccins (CVD-Mali), Centre National d'Appui a la lutte contre la Maladie, Ministere de la Sante et de l'Hygiene Publique, Bamako, Mali. ; World Health Organization Inter-Country Support Team, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. ; Rocky Mountain Veterinary Branch, Division of Intramural Research, NIAID, NIH, Hamilton, MT 59840, USA. ; Office of the Scientific Director, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20895, USA. ; Laboratory of Virology, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Hamilton, MT 59840, USA. feldmannh@niaid.nih.gov ssow@medicine.umaryland.edu. ; Centre des Operations d'Urgence, Centre pour le Developpement des Vaccins (CVD-Mali), Centre National d'Appui a la lutte contre la Maladie, Ministere de la Sante et de l'Hygiene Publique, Bamako, Mali. feldmannh@niaid.nih.gov ssow@medicine.umaryland.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25814067" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: DNA strand exchange plays a central role in genetic recombination across all kingdoms of life, but the physical basis for these reactions remains poorly defined. Using single-molecule imaging, we found that bacterial RecA and eukaryotic Rad51 and Dmc1 all stabilize strand exchange intermediates in precise three-nucleotide steps. Each step coincides with an energetic signature (0.3 kBT) that is conserved from bacteria to humans. Triplet recognition is strictly dependent on correct Watson-Crick pairing. Rad51, RecA, and Dmc1 can all step over mismatches, but only Dmc1 can stabilize mismatched triplets. This finding provides insight into why eukaryotes have evolved a meiosis-specific recombinase. We propose that canonical Watson-Crick base triplets serve as the fundamental unit of pairing interactions during DNA recombination.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4580133/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4580133/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lee, Ja Yil -- Terakawa, Tsuyoshi -- Qi, Zhi -- Steinfeld, Justin B -- Redding, Sy -- Kwon, YoungHo -- Gaines, William A -- Zhao, Weixing -- Sung, Patrick -- Greene, Eric C -- CA146940/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- GM074739/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 CA146940/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- R01 ES015252/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM074739/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01ES015252/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- T32 GM007367/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Aug 28;349(6251):977-81. doi: 10.1126/science.aab2666.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. Department of Biophysics, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Kyoto, Japan. ; Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. ; Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. ecg2108@cumc.columbia.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26315438" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Evans, Susan -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 24;349(6246):374-5. doi: 10.1126/science.aac5672. Epub 2015 Jul 23.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University College London, London, UK. s.e.evans@ucl.ac.uk.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26206915" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Variation in vectorial capacity for human malaria among Anopheles mosquito species is determined by many factors, including behavior, immunity, and life history. To investigate the genomic basis of vectorial capacity and explore new avenues for vector control, we sequenced the genomes of 16 anopheline mosquito species from diverse locations spanning ~100 million years of evolution. Comparative analyses show faster rates of gene gain and loss, elevated gene shuffling on the X chromosome, and more intron losses, relative to Drosophila. Some determinants of vectorial capacity, such as chemosensory genes, do not show elevated turnover but instead diversify through protein-sequence changes. This dynamism of anopheline genes and genomes may contribute to their flexible capacity to take advantage of new ecological niches, including adapting to humans as primary hosts.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4380271/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4380271/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Neafsey, Daniel E -- Waterhouse, Robert M -- Abai, Mohammad R -- Aganezov, Sergey S -- Alekseyev, Max A -- Allen, James E -- Amon, James -- Arca, Bruno -- Arensburger, Peter -- Artemov, Gleb -- Assour, Lauren A -- Basseri, Hamidreza -- Berlin, Aaron -- Birren, Bruce W -- Blandin, Stephanie A -- Brockman, Andrew I -- Burkot, Thomas R -- Burt, Austin -- Chan, Clara S -- Chauve, Cedric -- Chiu, Joanna C -- Christensen, Mikkel -- Costantini, Carlo -- Davidson, Victoria L M -- Deligianni, Elena -- Dottorini, Tania -- Dritsou, Vicky -- Gabriel, Stacey B -- Guelbeogo, Wamdaogo M -- Hall, Andrew B -- Han, Mira V -- Hlaing, Thaung -- Hughes, Daniel S T -- Jenkins, Adam M -- Jiang, Xiaofang -- Jungreis, Irwin -- Kakani, Evdoxia G -- Kamali, Maryam -- Kemppainen, Petri -- Kennedy, Ryan C -- Kirmitzoglou, Ioannis K -- Koekemoer, Lizette L -- Laban, Njoroge -- Langridge, Nicholas -- Lawniczak, Mara K N -- Lirakis, Manolis -- Lobo, Neil F -- Lowy, Ernesto -- MacCallum, Robert M -- Mao, Chunhong -- Maslen, Gareth -- Mbogo, Charles -- McCarthy, Jenny -- Michel, Kristin -- Mitchell, Sara N -- Moore, Wendy -- Murphy, Katherine A -- Naumenko, Anastasia N -- Nolan, Tony -- Novoa, Eva M -- O'Loughlin, Samantha -- Oringanje, Chioma -- Oshaghi, Mohammad A -- Pakpour, Nazzy -- Papathanos, Philippos A -- Peery, Ashley N -- Povelones, Michael -- Prakash, Anil -- Price, David P -- Rajaraman, Ashok -- Reimer, Lisa J -- Rinker, David C -- Rokas, Antonis -- Russell, Tanya L -- Sagnon, N'Fale -- Sharakhova, Maria V -- Shea, Terrance -- Simao, Felipe A -- Simard, Frederic -- Slotman, Michel A -- Somboon, Pradya -- Stegniy, Vladimir -- Struchiner, Claudio J -- Thomas, Gregg W C -- Tojo, Marta -- Topalis, Pantelis -- Tubio, Jose M C -- Unger, Maria F -- Vontas, John -- Walton, Catherine -- Wilding, Craig S -- Willis, Judith H -- Wu, Yi-Chieh -- Yan, Guiyun -- Zdobnov, Evgeny M -- Zhou, Xiaofan -- Catteruccia, Flaminia -- Christophides, George K -- Collins, Frank H -- Cornman, Robert S -- Crisanti, Andrea -- Donnelly, Martin J -- Emrich, Scott J -- Fontaine, Michael C -- Gelbart, William -- Hahn, Matthew W -- Hansen, Immo A -- Howell, Paul I -- Kafatos, Fotis C -- Kellis, Manolis -- Lawson, Daniel -- Louis, Christos -- Luckhart, Shirley -- Muskavitch, Marc A T -- Ribeiro, Jose M -- Riehle, Michael A -- Sharakhov, Igor V -- Tu, Zhijian -- Zwiebel, Laurence J -- Besansky, Nora J -- 092654/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- R01 AI050243/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI063508/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI073745/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI076584/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI080799/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R01 AI104956/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R21 AI101459/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- R56 AI107263/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- SC1 AI109055/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- U19 AI089686/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- U19 AI110818/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- U41 HG007234/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG003067/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jan 2;347(6217):1258522. doi: 10.1126/science.1258522. Epub 2014 Nov 27.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program, Broad Institute, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. neafsey@broadinstitute.org nbesansk@nd.edu. ; Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. The Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Department of Genetic Medicine and Development, University of Geneva Medical School, Rue Michel-Servet 1, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Rue Michel-Servet 1, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland. ; Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health and Institute of Health Researches, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. ; George Washington University, Department of Mathematics and Computational Biology Institute, 45085 University Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147, USA. ; European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, EMBL-EBI, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK. ; National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, Ministry of Health, Tafea Province, Vanuatu. ; Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Division of Parasitology, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy. ; Department of Biological Sciences, California State Polytechnic-Pomona, 3801 West Temple Avenue, Pomona, CA 91768, USA. ; Tomsk State University, 36 Lenina Avenue, Tomsk, Russia. ; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Eck Institute for Global Health, 211B Cushing Hall, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. ; Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program, Broad Institute, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. ; Inserm, U963, F-67084 Strasbourg, France. CNRS, UPR9022, IBMC, F-67084 Strasbourg, France. ; Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK. ; Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Science, Australian Institute of Tropical Health Medicine, James Cook University, Cairns 4870, Australia. ; Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot SL5 7PY, UK. ; Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. The Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. ; Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada. ; Department of Entomology and Nematology, One Shields Avenue, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA. ; Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, Unites Mixtes de Recherche Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs Ecologie, Genetique, Evolution et Controle, 911, Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501 Montpellier, France. ; Division of Biology, Kansas State University, 271 Chalmers Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA. ; Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas, Nikolaou Plastira 100 GR-70013, Heraklion, Crete, Greece. ; Centre of Functional Genomics, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy. ; Genomics Platform, Broad Institute, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. ; Centre National de Recherche et de Formation sur le Paludisme, Ouagadougou 01 BP 2208, Burkina Faso. ; Program of Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. ; School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA. ; Department of Medical Research, No. 5 Ziwaka Road, Dagon Township, Yangon 11191, Myanmar. ; European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, EMBL-EBI, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK. Baylor College of Medicine, 1 Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA. ; Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. Program of Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. ; Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Scienze Biochimiche, Universita degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia, Italy. ; Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. ; Computational Evolutionary Biology Group, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PT, UK. ; Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. ; Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK. Bioinformatics Research Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, New Campus, University of Cyprus, CY 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus. ; Wits Research Institute for Malaria, Faculty of Health Sciences, and Vector Control Reference Unit, National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory Service, Sandringham 2131, Johannesburg, South Africa. ; National Museums of Kenya, P.O. Box 40658-00100, Nairobi, Kenya. ; Department of Biology, University of Crete, 700 13 Heraklion, Greece. ; Eck Institute for Global Health and Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, 317 Galvin Life Sciences Building, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. ; Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, 1015 Life Science Circle, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. ; Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Centre for Geographic Medicine Research - Coast, P.O. Box 230-80108, Kilifi, Kenya. ; Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ; Department of Entomology, 1140 East South Campus Drive, Forbes 410, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. ; Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of California Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA. ; Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK. Centre of Functional Genomics, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy. ; Department of Pathobiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, 3800 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. ; Regional Medical Research Centre NE, Indian Council of Medical Research, P.O. Box 105, Dibrugarh-786 001, Assam, India. ; Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA. Molecular Biology Program, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA. ; Department of Vector Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK. ; Center for Human Genetics Research, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37235, USA. ; Center for Human Genetics Research, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37235, USA. Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA. ; Department of Genetic Medicine and Development, University of Geneva Medical School, Rue Michel-Servet 1, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Rue Michel-Servet 1, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland. ; Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77807, USA. ; Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand. ; Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz, Avenida Brasil 4365, RJ Brazil. Instituto de Medicina Social, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ; School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. ; Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases, Instituto de Investigaciones Sanitarias, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, A Coruna, Spain. ; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK. ; School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK. ; Department of Cellular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. ; Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. The Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Department of Computer Science, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711, USA. ; Program in Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Hewitt Hall, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. ; Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA. ; Department of Vector Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, L3 5QA, UK. Malaria Programme, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Cambridge CB10 1SJ, UK. ; Eck Institute for Global Health and Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, 317 Galvin Life Sciences Building, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. Centre of Evolutionary and Ecological Studies (Marine Evolution and Conservation group), University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, NL-9747 AG Groningen, Netherlands. ; Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. ; Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE MSG49, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA. ; Department of Biology, University of Crete, 700 13 Heraklion, Greece. Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas, Nikolaou Plastira 100 GR-70013, Heraklion, Crete, Greece. Centre of Functional Genomics, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy. ; Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA. Biogen Idec, 14 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. ; Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 12735 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville, MD 20852, USA. ; Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. Program of Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. ; Program of Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. ; Departments of Biological Sciences and Pharmacology, Institutes for Chemical Biology, Genetics and Global Health, Vanderbilt University and Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37235, USA. ; Eck Institute for Global Health and Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, 317 Galvin Life Sciences Building, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. neafsey@broadinstitute.org nbesansk@nd.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25554792" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Leslie, Mitch -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 May 8;348(6235):615-6. doi: 10.1126/science.348.6235.615.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25953984" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Vermeij, Geerat -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 27;350(6264):1038. doi: 10.1126/science.aad7032.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA. gjvermeij@ucdavis.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26612940" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Transcriptional enhancers direct precise on-off patterns of gene expression during development. To explore the basis for this precision, we conducted a high-throughput analysis of the Otx-a enhancer, which mediates expression in the neural plate of Ciona embryos in response to fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling and a localized GATA determinant. We provide evidence that enhancer specificity depends on submaximal recognition motifs having reduced binding affinities ("suboptimization"). Native GATA and ETS (FGF) binding sites contain imperfect matches to consensus motifs. Perfect matches mediate robust but ectopic patterns of gene expression. The native sites are not arranged at optimal intervals, and subtle changes in their spacing alter enhancer activity. Multiple tiers of enhancer suboptimization produce specific, but weak, patterns of expression, and we suggest that clusters of weak enhancers, including certain "superenhancers," circumvent this trade-off in specificity and activity.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Farley, Emma K -- Olson, Katrina M -- Zhang, Wei -- Brandt, Alexander J -- Rokhsar, Daniel S -- Levine, Michael S -- GM46638/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- NS076542/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Oct 16;350(6258):325-8. doi: 10.1126/science.aac6948.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Division of Genetics, Genomics and Development, Center for Integrative Genomics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3200, USA. Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. msl2@princeton.edu ekfarley@princeton.edu. ; Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Division of Genetics, Genomics and Development, Center for Integrative Genomics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3200, USA. Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. ; Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, CA 92093-0688, USA. ; Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3200, USA. ; Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Division of Genetics, Genomics and Development, Center for Integrative Genomics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3200, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26472909" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The carnivoran giant panda has a specialized bamboo diet, to which its alimentary tract is poorly adapted. Measurements of daily energy expenditure across five captive and three wild pandas averaged 5.2 megajoules (MJ)/day, only 37.7% of the predicted value (13.8 MJ/day). For the wild pandas, the mean was 6.2 MJ/day, or 45% of the mammalian expectation. Pandas achieve this exceptionally low expenditure in part by reduced sizes of several vital organs and low physical activity. In addition, circulating levels of thyroid hormones thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) averaged 46.9 and 64%, respectively, of the levels expected for a eutherian mammal of comparable size. A giant panda-unique mutation in the DUOX2 gene, critical for thyroid hormone synthesis, might explain these low thyroid hormone levels. A combination of morphological, behavioral, physiological, and genetic adaptations, leading to low energy expenditure, likely enables giant pandas to survive on a bamboo diet.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Nie, Yonggang -- Speakman, John R -- Wu, Qi -- Zhang, Chenglin -- Hu, Yibo -- Xia, Maohua -- Yan, Li -- Hambly, Catherine -- Wang, Lu -- Wei, Wei -- Zhang, Jinguo -- Wei, Fuwen -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 10;349(6244):171-4. doi: 10.1126/science.aab2413.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. ; State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. ; Beijing Key Laboratory of Captive Wildlife Technologies, Beijing Zoo, Beijing, China. ; Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. ; State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. ; Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. weifw@ioz.ac.cn.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26160943" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Hawks et al. argue that our analysis of Australopithecus sediba mandibles is flawed and that specimen LD 350-1 cannot be distinguished from this, or any other, Australopithecus species. Our reexamination of the evidence confirms that LD 350-1 falls outside of the pattern that A. sediba shares with Australopithecus and thus is reasonably assigned to the genus Homo.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Villmoare, Brian -- Kimbel, William H -- Seyoum, Chalachew -- Campisano, Christopher J -- DiMaggio, Erin -- Rowan, John -- Braun, David R -- Arrowsmith, J Ramon -- Reed, Kaye E -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jun 19;348(6241):1326. doi: 10.1126/science.aab1122.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, 89154, USA. Center for the Advanced Study of Hominin Paleobiology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1H 0BW, UK. brian.villmoare@unlv.edu wkimbel.iho@asu.edu. ; School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. brian.villmoare@unlv.edu wkimbel.iho@asu.edu. ; School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ; School of Human Evolution and Social Change and Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. ; Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. ; Center for the Advanced Study of Hominin Paleobiology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. ; School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26089506" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Our understanding of the origin of the genus Homo has been hampered by a limited fossil record in eastern Africa between 2.0 and 3.0 million years ago (Ma). Here we report the discovery of a partial hominin mandible with teeth from the Ledi-Geraru research area, Afar Regional State, Ethiopia, that establishes the presence of Homo at 2.80 to 2.75 Ma. This specimen combines primitive traits seen in early Australopithecus with derived morphology observed in later Homo, confirming that dentognathic departures from the australopith pattern occurred early in the Homo lineage. The Ledi-Geraru discovery has implications for hypotheses about the timing and place of origin of the genus Homo.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Villmoare, Brian -- Kimbel, William H -- Seyoum, Chalachew -- Campisano, Christopher J -- DiMaggio, Erin N -- Rowan, John -- Braun, David R -- Arrowsmith, J Ramon -- Reed, Kaye E -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Mar 20;347(6228):1352-5. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa1343. Epub 2015 Mar 4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA. Center for the Advanced Study of Hominin Paleobiology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1H 0BW, UK. brian.villmoare@unlv.edu wkimbel.iho@asu.edu. ; Institute of Human Origins and School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. brian.villmoare@unlv.edu wkimbel.iho@asu.edu. ; Institute of Human Origins and School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ; Institute of Human Origins and School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA. ; Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. ; Center for the Advanced Study of Hominin Paleobiology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. ; School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25739410" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lichten, Michael -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 20;350(6263):913. doi: 10.1126/science.aad5404. Epub 2015 Nov 19.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. mlichten@helix.nih.gov.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26586748" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Service, Robert F -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 24;349(6246):372-3. doi: 10.1126/science.349.6246.372.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26206914" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Wade, Lizzie -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 24;349(6246):370-1. doi: 10.1126/science.349.6246.370. Epub 2015 Jul 23.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26206913" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Wagner, Peter J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 13;350(6262):736-7. doi: 10.1126/science.aad6283.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA. wagnerpj@si.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26564831" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Cytoplasmic aggregation of TDP-43, accompanied by its nuclear clearance, is a key common pathological hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD). However, a limited understanding of this RNA-binding protein (RBP) impedes the clarification of pathogenic mechanisms underlying TDP-43 proteinopathy. In contrast to RBPs that regulate splicing of conserved exons, we found that TDP-43 repressed the splicing of nonconserved cryptic exons, maintaining intron integrity. When TDP-43 was depleted from mouse embryonic stem cells, these cryptic exons were spliced into messenger RNAs, often disrupting their translation and promoting nonsense-mediated decay. Moreover, enforced repression of cryptic exons prevented cell death in TDP-43-deficient cells. Furthermore, repression of cryptic exons was impaired in ALS-FTD cases, suggesting that this splicing defect could potentially underlie TDP-43 proteinopathy.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Ling, Jonathan P -- Pletnikova, Olga -- Troncoso, Juan C -- Wong, Philip C -- P50AG05146/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Aug 7;349(6248):650-5. doi: 10.1126/science.aab0983.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205-2196, USA. ; Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205-2196, USA. Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205-2196, USA. ; Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205-2196, USA. Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205-2196, USA. wong@jhmi.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26250685" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Mammoths provide a detailed example of species origins and dispersal, but understanding has been impeded by taxonomic confusion, especially in North America. The Columbian mammoth Mammuthus columbi was thought to have evolved in North America from a more primitive Eurasian immigrant. The earliest American mammoths (1.5 million years ago), however, resemble the advanced Eurasian M. trogontherii that crossed the Bering land bridge around that time, giving rise directly to M. columbi. Woolly mammoth M. primigenius later evolved in Beringia and spread into Europe and North America, leading to a diversity of morphologies as it encountered endemic M. trogontherii and M. columbi, respectively. In North America, this included intermediates ("M. jeffersonii"), suggesting introgression of M. primigenius with M. columbi. The lineage illustrates the dynamic interplay of local adaptation, dispersal, and gene flow in the evolution of a widely distributed species complex.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Lister, A M -- Sher, A V -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 13;350(6262):805-9. doi: 10.1126/science.aac5660.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK. a.lister@nhm.ac.uk. ; Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Moscow 119071, Russia.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26564853" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Steffen et al. (Research Articles, 13 February 2015, p. 736) recently assessed current global freshwater use, finding it to be well below a corresponding planetary boundary. However, they ignored recent scientific advances implying that the global consumptive use of freshwater may have already crossed the associated planetary boundary.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Jaramillo, Fernando -- Destouni, Georgia -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jun 12;348(6240):1217. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa9629. Epub 2015 Jun 11.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden. Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden. fernando.jaramillo@natgeo.su.se. ; Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden. Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26068843" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Miocene small-bodied anthropoid primates from Africa and Eurasia are generally considered to precede the divergence between the two groups of extant catarrhines-hominoids (apes and humans) and Old World monkeys-and are thus viewed as more primitive than the stem ape Proconsul. Here we describe Pliobates cataloniae gen. et sp. nov., a small-bodied (4 to 5 kilograms) primate from the Iberian Miocene (11.6 million years ago) that displays a mosaic of primitive characteristics coupled with multiple cranial and postcranial shared derived features of extant hominoids. Our cladistic analyses show that Pliobates is a stem hominoid that is more derived than previously described small catarrhines and Proconsul. This forces us to reevaluate the role played by small-bodied catarrhines in ape evolution and provides key insight into the last common ancestor of hylobatids (gibbons) and hominids (great apes and humans).〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Alba, David M -- Almecija, Sergio -- DeMiguel, Daniel -- Fortuny, Josep -- Perez de los Rios, Miriam -- Pina, Marta -- Robles, Josep M -- Moya-Sola, Salvador -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Oct 30;350(6260):aab2625. doi: 10.1126/science.aab2625. Epub 2015 Oct 29.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Edifici ICTA-ICP, Carrer de les Columnes sense numero, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain. ; Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Edifici ICTA-ICP, Carrer de les Columnes sense numero, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain. ; Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB), Edifici ICTA-ICP, Carrer de les Columnes sense numero, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain. FOSSILIA Serveis Paleontologics i Geologics, Jaume I 87, 5e 1a, 08470 Sant Celoni, Barcelona, Spain. ; Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats at ICP and Unitat d'Antropologia Biologica (Department de Biologia Animal, de Biologia Vegetal i d'Ecologia), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, Carrer de les Columnes sense numero, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26516285" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Bacterial adaptive immunity uses CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-associated (Cas) proteins together with CRISPR transcripts for foreign DNA degradation. In type II CRISPR-Cas systems, activation of Cas9 endonuclease for DNA recognition upon guide RNA binding occurs by an unknown mechanism. Crystal structures of Cas9 bound to single-guide RNA reveal a conformation distinct from both the apo and DNA-bound states, in which the 10-nucleotide RNA "seed" sequence required for initial DNA interrogation is preordered in an A-form conformation. This segment of the guide RNA is essential for Cas9 to form a DNA recognition-competent structure that is poised to engage double-stranded DNA target sequences. We construe this as convergent evolution of a "seed" mechanism reminiscent of that used by Argonaute proteins during RNA interference in eukaryotes.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Jiang, Fuguo -- Zhou, Kaihong -- Ma, Linlin -- Gressel, Saskia -- Doudna, Jennifer A -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jun 26;348(6242):1477-81. doi: 10.1126/science.aab1452.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. ; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. ; Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, 37077 Gottingen, Germany. ; Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Innovative Genomics Initiative, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. doudna@berkeley.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26113724" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Skinner and colleagues (Research Article, 23 January 2015, p. 395), based on metacarpal trabecular bone structure, argue that Australopithecus africanus employed human-like dexterity for stone tool making and use 3 million years ago. However, their evolutionary and biological assumptions are misinformed, failing to refute the previously existing hypothesis that human-like manipulation preceded systematized stone tool manufacture, as indicated by the fossil record.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Almecija, Sergio -- Wallace, Ian J -- Judex, Stefan -- Alba, David M -- Moya-Sola, Salvador -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jun 5;348(6239):1101. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa8414.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, Science and Engineering Hall, 800 22nd Street NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA. Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, Carrer de les Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain. sergio.almecija@gmail.com. ; Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. ; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. ; Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-ICP, Carrer de les Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain. ; ICREA at Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont and Unitat d'Antropologia Biologica (Departament BABVE), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICTA-CP, Carrer de les Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Valles, Barcelona, Spain.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26045428" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Jaramillo and Destouni claim that freshwater consumption is beyond the planetary boundary, based on high estimates of water cycle components, different definitions of water consumption, and extrapolation from a single case study. The difference from our analysis, based on mainstream assessments of global water consumption, highlights the need for clearer definitions of water cycle components and improved models and databases.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gerten, Dieter -- Rockstrom, Johan -- Heinke, Jens -- Steffen, Will -- Richardson, Katherine -- Cornell, Sarah -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jun 12;348(6240):1217. doi: 10.1126/science.aab0031. Epub 2015 Jun 11.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Research Domain of Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 14473 Potsdam, Germany. gerten@pik-potsdam.de. ; Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden. ; Research Domain of Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 14473 Potsdam, Germany. International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, 00100 Kenya. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, St. Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia. ; Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden. Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. ; Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Natural History Museum of Denmark, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26068844" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Transcription factors (TFs) bind specific sequences in promoter-proximal and -distal DNA elements to regulate gene transcription. RNA is transcribed from both of these DNA elements, and some DNA binding TFs bind RNA. Hence, RNA transcribed from regulatory elements may contribute to stable TF occupancy at these sites. We show that the ubiquitously expressed TF Yin-Yang 1 (YY1) binds to both gene regulatory elements and their associated RNA species across the entire genome. Reduced transcription of regulatory elements diminishes YY1 occupancy, whereas artificial tethering of RNA enhances YY1 occupancy at these elements. We propose that RNA makes a modest but important contribution to the maintenance of certain TFs at gene regulatory elements and suggest that transcription of regulatory elements produces a positive-feedback loop that contributes to the stability of gene expression programs.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4720525/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4720525/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Sigova, Alla A -- Abraham, Brian J -- Ji, Xiong -- Molinie, Benoit -- Hannett, Nancy M -- Guo, Yang Eric -- Jangi, Mohini -- Giallourakis, Cosmas C -- Sharp, Phillip A -- Young, Richard A -- HG002668/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- R01 HG002668/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 20;350(6263):978-81. doi: 10.1126/science.aad3346. Epub 2015 Oct 29.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. ; Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ; Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA. ; Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. young@wi.mit.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26516199" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The evolution of sexual reproduction is often explained by Red Queen dynamics: Organisms must continually evolve to maintain fitness relative to interacting organisms, such as parasites. Recombination accompanies sexual reproduction and helps diversify an organism's offspring, so that parasites cannot exploit static host genotypes. Here we show that Drosophila melanogaster plastically increases the production of recombinant offspring after infection. The response is consistent across genetic backgrounds, developmental stages, and parasite types but is not induced after sterile wounding. Furthermore, the response appears to be driven by transmission distortion rather than increased recombination. Our study extends the Red Queen model to include the increased production of recombinant offspring and uncovers a remarkable ability of hosts to actively distort their recombination fraction in rapid response to environmental cues.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Singh, Nadia D -- Criscoe, Dallas R -- Skolfield, Shelly -- Kohl, Kathryn P -- Keebaugh, Erin S -- Schlenke, Todd A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Aug 14;349(6249):747-50. doi: 10.1126/science.aab1768.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biological Sciences and Bioinformatics Research Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA. ndsingh@ncsu.edu schlenkt@reed.edu. ; Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine Program, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA. ; Department of Biology, Reed College, Portland, OR, USA. ; Department of Biology, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC, USA. ; Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. ; Department of Biology, Reed College, Portland, OR, USA. ndsingh@ncsu.edu schlenkt@reed.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26273057" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pennisi, Elizabeth -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 13;350(6262):729-30. doi: 10.1126/science.350.6262.729.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26564827" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gibbons, Ann -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Oct 16;350(6258):264. doi: 10.1126/science.350.6258.264.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26472887" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Almecija and colleagues claim that we apply a simplified understanding of bone functional adaptation and that our results of human-like hand use in Australopithecus africanus are not novel. We argue that our results speak to actual behavior, rather than potential behaviors, and our functional interpretation is well supported by our methodological approach, comparative sample, and previous experimental data.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Skinner, Matthew M -- Stephens, Nicholas B -- Tsegai, Zewdi J -- Foote, Alexandra C -- Nguyen, N Huynh -- Gross, Thomas -- Pahr, Dieter H -- Hublin, Jean-Jacques -- Kivell, Tracy L -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jun 5;348(6239):1101. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa8931.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NR, UK. Department of Anthropology, University College London London, WC1H 0BW, UK. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Evolutionary Studies Institute and Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa. m.skinner@kent.ac.uk t.l.kivell@kent.ac.uk. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Department of Anthropology, University College London London, WC1H 0BW, UK. ; Institute of Lightweight Design and Structural Biomechanics, Vienna University of Technology, Gusshausstrasse 27-29, 1040 Wien, Vienna, Austria. ; School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NR, UK. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Evolutionary Studies Institute and Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa. m.skinner@kent.ac.uk t.l.kivell@kent.ac.uk.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26045429" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: A new Late Jurassic docodontan shows specializations for a subterranean lifestyle. It is similar to extant subterranean golden moles in having reduced digit segments as compared to the ancestral phalangeal pattern of mammaliaforms and extant mammals. The reduction of digit segments can occur in mammals by fusion of the proximal and intermediate phalangeal precursors, a developmental process for which a gene and signaling network have been characterized in mouse and human. Docodontans show a positional shift of thoracolumbar ribs, a developmental variation that is controlled by Hox9 and Myf5 genes in extant mammals. We argue that these morphogenetic mechanisms of modern mammals were operating before the rise of modern mammals, driving the morphological disparity in the earliest mammaliaform diversification.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Luo, Zhe-Xi -- Meng, Qing-Jin -- Ji, Qiang -- Liu, Di -- Zhang, Yu-Guang -- Neander, April I -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Feb 13;347(6223):760-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1260880.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. zxluo@uchicago.edu mengqingjin@bmnh.org.cn. ; Beijing Museum of Natural History, Beijing 100050, China. zxluo@uchicago.edu mengqingjin@bmnh.org.cn. ; Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China. ; Beijing Museum of Natural History, Beijing 100050, China. ; Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25678660" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The distinctly human ability for forceful precision and power "squeeze" gripping is linked to two key evolutionary transitions in hand use: a reduction in arboreal climbing and the manufacture and use of tools. However, it is unclear when these locomotory and manipulative transitions occurred. Here we show that Australopithecus africanus (~3 to 2 million years ago) and several Pleistocene hominins, traditionally considered not to have engaged in habitual tool manufacture, have a human-like trabecular bone pattern in the metacarpals consistent with forceful opposition of the thumb and fingers typically adopted during tool use. These results support archaeological evidence for stone tool use in australopiths and provide morphological evidence that Pliocene hominins achieved human-like hand postures much earlier and more frequently than previously considered.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Skinner, Matthew M -- Stephens, Nicholas B -- Tsegai, Zewdi J -- Foote, Alexandra C -- Nguyen, N Huynh -- Gross, Thomas -- Pahr, Dieter H -- Hublin, Jean-Jacques -- Kivell, Tracy L -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jan 23;347(6220):395-9. doi: 10.1126/science.1261735.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NR, UK. Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1H 0BW, UK. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig Germany. Evolutionary Studies Institute and Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa. m.skinner@kent.ac.uk t.l.kivell@kent.ac.uk. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig Germany. ; Department of Anthropology, University College London, London WC1H 0BW, UK. ; Institute of Lightweight Design and Structural Biomechanics, Vienna University of Technology, Gusshausstrasse 27-29, 1040 Wien, Vienna, Austria. ; School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NR, UK. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig Germany. Evolutionary Studies Institute and Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa. m.skinner@kent.ac.uk t.l.kivell@kent.ac.uk.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25613885" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Morphinan alkaloids from the opium poppy are used for pain relief. The direction of metabolites to morphinan biosynthesis requires isomerization of (S)- to (R)-reticuline. Characterization of high-reticuline poppy mutants revealed a genetic locus, designated STORR [(S)- to (R)-reticuline] that encodes both cytochrome P450 and oxidoreductase modules, the latter belonging to the aldo-keto reductase family. Metabolite analysis of mutant alleles and heterologous expression demonstrate that the P450 module is responsible for the conversion of (S)-reticuline to 1,2-dehydroreticuline, whereas the oxidoreductase module converts 1,2-dehydroreticuline to (R)-reticuline rather than functioning as a P450 redox partner. Proteomic analysis confirmed that these two modules are contained on a single polypeptide in vivo. This modular assembly implies a selection pressure favoring substrate channeling. The fusion protein STORR may enable microbial-based morphinan production.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Winzer, Thilo -- Kern, Marcelo -- King, Andrew J -- Larson, Tony R -- Teodor, Roxana I -- Donninger, Samantha L -- Li, Yi -- Dowle, Adam A -- Cartwright, Jared -- Bates, Rachel -- Ashford, David -- Thomas, Jerry -- Walker, Carol -- Bowser, Tim A -- Graham, Ian A -- BB/K018809/1/Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 17;349(6245):309-12. doi: 10.1126/science.aab1852. Epub 2015 Jun 25.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK. ; Bioscience Technology Facility, Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK. ; GlaxoSmithKline, 1061 Mountain Highway, Post Office Box 168, Boronia, Victoria 3155, Australia.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26113639" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gibbons, Ann -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 24;349(6246):362-6. doi: 10.1126/science.349.6246.362.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26206910" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pennisi, Elizabeth -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 3;349(6243):21-3. doi: 10.1126/science.349.6243.21.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26138961" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gibbons, Ann -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 May 22;348(6237):847. doi: 10.1126/science.348.6237.847.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25999485" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gibbons, Ann -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Mar 6;347(6226):1056-7. doi: 10.1126/science.347.6226.1056-b.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25745142" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gibbons, Ann -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Sep 11;349(6253):1149-50. doi: 10.1126/science.349.6253.1149.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26359379" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉MacLean, Evan L -- Hare, Brian -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Apr 17;348(6232):280-1. doi: 10.1126/science.aab1200. Epub 2015 Apr 16.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Duke Canine Cognition Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. ; Duke Canine Cognition Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. b.hare@duke.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25883339" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pennisi, Elizabeth -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 May 15;348(6236):744. doi: 10.1126/science.348.6236.744.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25977530" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pennisi, Elizabeth -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jan 16;347(6219):220-1. doi: 10.1126/science.347.6219.220.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25593165" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Perkins, Sid -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Sep 25;349(6255):1431. doi: 10.1126/science.349.6255.1431.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26404802" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Snakes are a remarkably diverse and successful group today, but their evolutionary origins are obscure. The discovery of snakes with two legs has shed light on the transition from lizards to snakes, but no snake has been described with four limbs, and the ecology of early snakes is poorly known. We describe a four-limbed snake from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian) Crato Formation of Brazil. The snake has a serpentiform body plan with an elongate trunk, short tail, and large ventral scales suggesting characteristic serpentine locomotion, yet retains small prehensile limbs. Skull and body proportions as well as reduced neural spines indicate fossorial adaptation, suggesting that snakes evolved from burrowing rather than marine ancestors. Hooked teeth, an intramandibular joint, a flexible spine capable of constricting prey, and the presence of vertebrate remains in the guts indicate that this species preyed on vertebrates and that snakes made the transition to carnivory early in their history. The structure of the limbs suggests that they were adapted for grasping, either to seize prey or as claspers during mating. Together with a diverse fauna of basal snakes from the Cretaceous of South America, Africa, and India, this snake suggests that crown Serpentes originated in Gondwana.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Martill, David M -- Tischlinger, Helmut -- Longrich, Nicholas R -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 24;349(6246):416-9. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa9208.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3QL, UK. ; Tannenweg 16, 85134 Stammham, Germany. ; Department of Biology and Biochemistry and Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26206932" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Obligate parasitic plants in the Orobanchaceae germinate after sensing plant hormones, strigolactones, exuded from host roots. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the alpha/beta-hydrolase D14 acts as a strigolactone receptor that controls shoot branching, whereas its ancestral paralog, KAI2, mediates karrikin-specific germination responses. We observed that KAI2, but not D14, is present at higher copy numbers in parasitic species than in nonparasitic relatives. KAI2 paralogs in parasites are distributed into three phylogenetic clades. The fastest-evolving clade, KAI2d, contains the majority of KAI2 paralogs. Homology models predict that the ligand-binding pockets of KAI2d resemble D14. KAI2d transgenes confer strigolactone-specific germination responses to Arabidopsis thaliana. Thus, the KAI2 paralogs D14 and KAI2d underwent convergent evolution of strigolactone recognition, respectively enabling developmental responses to strigolactones in angiosperms and host detection in parasites.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Conn, Caitlin E -- Bythell-Douglas, Rohan -- Neumann, Drexel -- Yoshida, Satoko -- Whittington, Bryan -- Westwood, James H -- Shirasu, Ken -- Bond, Charles S -- Dyer, Kelly A -- Nelson, David C -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 31;349(6247):540-3. doi: 10.1126/science.aab1140.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA. ; School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia. ; RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 230-0045, Japan. ; Department of Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26228149" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kay, Richard F -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Mar 6;347(6226):1068-9. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa9217.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Evolutionary Anthropology and Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA. richard.kay@duke.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25745147" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The planetary boundaries framework defines a safe operating space for humanity based on the intrinsic biophysical processes that regulate the stability of the Earth system. Here, we revise and update the planetary boundary framework, with a focus on the underpinning biophysical science, based on targeted input from expert research communities and on more general scientific advances over the past 5 years. Several of the boundaries now have a two-tier approach, reflecting the importance of cross-scale interactions and the regional-level heterogeneity of the processes that underpin the boundaries. Two core boundaries-climate change and biosphere integrity-have been identified, each of which has the potential on its own to drive the Earth system into a new state should they be substantially and persistently transgressed.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Steffen, Will -- Richardson, Katherine -- Rockstrom, Johan -- Cornell, Sarah E -- Fetzer, Ingo -- Bennett, Elena M -- Biggs, Reinette -- Carpenter, Stephen R -- de Vries, Wim -- de Wit, Cynthia A -- Folke, Carl -- Gerten, Dieter -- Heinke, Jens -- Mace, Georgina M -- Persson, Linn M -- Ramanathan, Veerabhadran -- Reyers, Belinda -- Sorlin, Sverker -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Feb 13;347(6223):1259855. doi: 10.1126/science.1259855. Epub 2015 Jan 15.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden. Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. will.steffen@anu.edu.au. ; Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Universitetsparken 15, Building 3, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. ; Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden. ; Department of Natural Resource Sciences and McGill School of Environment, McGill University, 21, 111 Lakeshore Road, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC H9X 3V9, Canada. ; Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden. Centre for Studies in Complexity, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa. ; Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, 680 North Park Street, Madison WI 53706 USA. ; Alterra Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 47, 6700AA Wageningen, Netherlands. Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, Netherlands. ; Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden. ; Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden. Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, SE-10405 Stockholm, Sweden. ; Research Domain Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Telegraphenberg A62, 14473 Potsdam, Germany. ; Research Domain Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Telegraphenberg A62, 14473 Potsdam, Germany. International Livestock Research Institute, P.O. Box 30709, Nairobi, 00100 Kenya. CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization), St. Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia. ; Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research (CBER), Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK. ; Stockholm Environment Institute, Linnegatan 87D, SE-10451 Stockholm, Sweden. ; Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, 8622 Kennel Way, La Jolla, CA 92037 USA. TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) University, 10 Institutional Area, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, Delhi 110070, India. ; Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden. Natural Resources and the Environment, CSIR, P.O. Box 320, Stellenbosch 7599, South Africa. ; Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25592418" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The 5' leader of the HIV-1 genome contains conserved elements that direct selective packaging of the unspliced, dimeric viral RNA into assembling particles. By using a (2)H-edited nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) approach, we determined the structure of a 155-nucleotide region of the leader that is independently capable of directing packaging (core encapsidation signal; Psi(CES)). The RNA adopts an unexpected tandem three-way junction structure, in which residues of the major splice donor and translation initiation sites are sequestered by long-range base pairing and guanosines essential for both packaging and high-affinity binding to the cognate Gag protein are exposed in helical junctions. The structure reveals how translation is attenuated, Gag binding promoted, and unspliced dimeric genomes selected, by the RNA conformer that directs packaging.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4492308/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4492308/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Keane, Sarah C -- Heng, Xiao -- Lu, Kun -- Kharytonchyk, Siarhei -- Ramakrishnan, Venkateswaran -- Carter, Gregory -- Barton, Shawn -- Hosic, Azra -- Florwick, Alyssa -- Santos, Justin -- Bolden, Nicholas C -- McCowin, Sayo -- Case, David A -- Johnson, Bruce A -- Salemi, Marco -- Telesnitsky, Alice -- Summers, Michael F -- 2T34 GM008663/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P50 GM 103297/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- P50 GM103297/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM042561/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM42561/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 May 22;348(6237):917-21. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa9266.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA. ; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5620, USA. ; Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. ; One Moon Scientific, Incorporated, 839 Grant Avenue, Westfield, NJ 07090, USA, and City University of New York (CUNY) Advanced Science Research Center, 85 St. Nicholas Terrace, New York, NY 10031, USA. ; Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, and Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA. ; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5620, USA. summers@hhmi.umbc.edu ateles@umich.edu. ; Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA. summers@hhmi.umbc.edu ateles@umich.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25999508" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Many top consumers in today's oceans are marine tetrapods, a collection of lineages independently derived from terrestrial ancestors. The fossil record illuminates their transitions from land to sea, yet these initial invasions account for a small proportion of their evolutionary history. We review the history of marine invasions that drove major changes in anatomy, physiology, and ecology over more than 250 million years. Many innovations evolved convergently in multiple clades, whereas others are unique to individual lineages. The evolutionary arcs of these ecologically important clades are framed against the backdrop of mass extinctions and regime shifts in ocean ecosystems. Past and present human disruptions to marine tetrapods, with cascading impacts on marine ecosystems, underscore the need to link macroecology with evolutionary change.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kelley, Neil P -- Pyenson, Nicholas D -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Apr 17;348(6232):aaa3716. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa3716.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240, USA. kelleynp@si.edu. ; Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA. Departments of Mammalogy and Paleontology, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25883362" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Prufer and Meyer raise concerns over the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) results we reported for the Hoyo Negro individual, citing failure of a portion of these data to conform to their expectations of ancient DNA (aDNA). Because damage patterns in aDNA vary, outright rejection of our findings on this basis is unwarranted, especially in light of our other observations.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kemp, Brian M -- Lindo, John -- Bolnick, Deborah A -- Malhi, Ripan S -- Chatters, James C -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Feb 20;347(6224):835. doi: 10.1126/science.1261188.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anthropology and School of Biological Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA. paleosci@gmail.com bmkemp@wsu.edu. ; Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. ; Department of Anthropology and Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA. ; Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. ; Applied Paleoscience and DirectAMS, 10322 Northeast 190th Street, Bothell, WA 98011, USA. paleosci@gmail.com bmkemp@wsu.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25700511" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Balter, Michael -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 May 8;348(6235):617. doi: 10.1126/science.348.6235.617.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25953986" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The shortage of organs for transplantation is a major barrier to the treatment of organ failure. Although porcine organs are considered promising, their use has been checked by concerns about the transmission of porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) to humans. Here we describe the eradication of all PERVs in a porcine kidney epithelial cell line (PK15). We first determined the PK15 PERV copy number to be 62. Using CRISPR-Cas9, we disrupted all copies of the PERV pol gene and demonstrated a 〉1000-fold reduction in PERV transmission to human cells, using our engineered cells. Our study shows that CRISPR-Cas9 multiplexability can be as high as 62 and demonstrates the possibility that PERVs can be inactivated for clinical application of porcine-to-human xenotransplantation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Yang, Luhan -- Guell, Marc -- Niu, Dong -- George, Haydy -- Lesha, Emal -- Grishin, Dennis -- Aach, John -- Shrock, Ellen -- Xu, Weihong -- Poci, Jurgen -- Cortazio, Rebeca -- Wilkinson, Robert A -- Fishman, Jay A -- Church, George -- P50 HG005550/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 27;350(6264):1101-4. doi: 10.1126/science.aad1191. Epub 2015 Oct 11.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. eGenesis Biosciences, Boston, MA 02115, USA. gchurch@genetics.med.harvard.edu luhan.yang@egenesisbio.com. ; Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. eGenesis Biosciences, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ; Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China. ; Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. ; Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. ; Transplant Infectious Disease and Compromised Host Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26456528" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Stokstad, Erik -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Aug 28;349(6251):914. doi: 10.1126/science.349.6251.914.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26315415" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Most spontaneous DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) result from replication-fork breakage. Break-induced replication (BIR), a genome rearrangement-prone repair mechanism that requires the Pol32/POLD3 subunit of eukaryotic DNA Poldelta, was proposed to repair broken forks, but how genome destabilization is avoided was unknown. We show that broken fork repair initially uses error-prone Pol32-dependent synthesis, but that mutagenic synthesis is limited to within a few kilobases from the break by Mus81 endonuclease and a converging fork. Mus81 suppresses template switches between both homologous sequences and diverged human Alu repetitive elements, highlighting its importance for stability of highly repetitive genomes. We propose that lack of a timely converging fork or Mus81 may propel genome instability observed in cancer.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Mayle, Ryan -- Campbell, Ian M -- Beck, Christine R -- Yu, Yang -- Wilson, Marenda -- Shaw, Chad A -- Bjergbaek, Lotte -- Lupski, James R -- Ira, Grzegorz -- F31 NS083159/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- GM080600/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- HG006542/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- NS058529/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- NS083159/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM080600/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 NS058529/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- U54 HG006542/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Aug 14;349(6249):742-7. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa8391.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA. ; Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of Aarhus, Aarhus 8000, Denmark. ; Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Department of Pediatrics, and Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA. ; Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX 77030, USA. gira@bcm.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26273056" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kiers, E Toby -- West, Stuart A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Apr 24;348(6233):392-4. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa9605.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute of Ecological Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands. toby.kiers@vu.nl. ; Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25908807" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Chatters et al. (Reports, 16 May 2014, p. 750) reported the retrieval of DNA sequences from a 12,000- to 13,000-year-old human tooth discovered in an underwater cave in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. They propose that this ancient human individual's mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) belongs to haplogroup D1. However, our analysis of postmortem damage patterns finds no evidence for an ancient origin of these sequences.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Prufer, Kay -- Meyer, Matthias -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Feb 20;347(6224):835. doi: 10.1126/science.1260617.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. pruefer@eva.mpg.de mmeyer@eva.mpg.de.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25700510" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Evolutionary innovations, traits that give species access to previously unoccupied niches, may promote speciation and adaptive radiation. Here, we show that such innovations can also result in competitive inferiority and extinction. We present evidence that the modified pharyngeal jaws of cichlid fishes and several marine fish lineages, a classic example of evolutionary innovation, are not universally beneficial. A large-scale analysis of dietary evolution across marine fish lineages reveals that the innovation compromises access to energy-rich predator niches. We show that this competitive inferiority shaped the adaptive radiation of cichlids in Lake Tanganyika and played a pivotal and previously unrecognized role in the mass extinction of cichlid fishes in Lake Victoria after Nile perch invasion.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉McGee, Matthew D -- Borstein, Samuel R -- Neches, Russell Y -- Buescher, Heinz H -- Seehausen, Ole -- Wainwright, Peter C -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 27;350(6264):1077-9. doi: 10.1126/science.aab0800.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Evolution and Ecology and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, CH-6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland. mcgee.matthew@gmail.com. ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA. ; Department of Evolution and Ecology and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. ; Zoological Institute, University of Basel, CH-4051 Basel, Switzerland. ; Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland. Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology, CH-6047 Kastanienbaum, Switzerland.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26612951" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Alternative splicing (AS) generates extensive transcriptomic and proteomic complexity. However, the functions of species- and lineage-specific splice variants are largely unknown. Here we show that mammalian-specific skipping of polypyrimidine tract-binding protein 1 (PTBP1) exon 9 alters the splicing regulatory activities of PTBP1 and affects the inclusion levels of numerous exons. During neurogenesis, skipping of exon 9 reduces PTBP1 repressive activity so as to facilitate activation of a brain-specific AS program. Engineered skipping of the orthologous exon in chicken cells induces a large number of mammalian-like AS changes in PTBP1 target exons. These results thus reveal that a single exon-skipping event in an RNA binding regulator directs numerous AS changes between species. Our results further suggest that these changes contributed to evolutionary differences in the formation of vertebrate nervous systems.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Gueroussov, Serge -- Gonatopoulos-Pournatzis, Thomas -- Irimia, Manuel -- Raj, Bushra -- Lin, Zhen-Yuan -- Gingras, Anne-Claude -- Blencowe, Benjamin J -- Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canada -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Aug 21;349(6250):868-73. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa8381.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada. Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada. ; Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada. ; Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada. EMBL/CRG Systems Biology Research Unit, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain. ; Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, 600 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X5, Canada. ; Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada. Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, 600 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X5, Canada. ; Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada. Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada. b.blencowe@utoronto.ca.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26293963" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The Protoaurignacian culture is pivotal to the debate about the timing of the arrival of modern humans in western Europe and the demise of Neandertals. However, which group is responsible for this culture remains uncertain. We investigated dental remains associated with the Protoaurignacian. The lower deciduous incisor from Riparo Bombrini is modern human, based on its morphology. The upper deciduous incisor from Grotta di Fumane contains ancient mitochondrial DNA of a modern human type. These teeth are the oldest human remains in an Aurignacian-related archaeological context, confirming that by 41,000 calendar years before the present, modern humans bearing Protoaurignacian culture spread into southern Europe. Because the last Neandertals date to 41,030 to 39,260 calendar years before the present, we suggest that the Protoaurignacian triggered the demise of Neandertals in this area.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Benazzi, S -- Slon, V -- Talamo, S -- Negrino, F -- Peresani, M -- Bailey, S E -- Sawyer, S -- Panetta, D -- Vicino, G -- Starnini, E -- Mannino, M A -- Salvadori, P A -- Meyer, M -- Paabo, S -- Hublin, J-J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 May 15;348(6236):793-6. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa2773. Epub 2015 Apr 23.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Via degli Ariani 1, 48121 Ravenna, Italy. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. stefano.benazzi@unibo.it. ; Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. ; Dipartimento di Antichita, Filosofia, Storia e Geografia, Universita di Genova, Via Balbi 2, 16126 Genova, Italy. ; Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Corso Ercole I d'Este 32, Universita di Ferrara, 44100 Ferrara, Italy. ; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University, 25 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10003, USA. ; CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, Via G. Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy. ; Museo Archeologico del Finale, Chiostri di Santa Caterina, 17024 Finale Ligure Borgo, Italy. ; Scuola di Scienze Umanistiche, Dipartimento di Studi Storici, Universita di Torino, via S. Ottavio 20, 10124 Torino, Italy. Museo Preistorico Nazionale dei Balzi Rossi, Via Balzi Rossi 9, 18039 Ventimiglia, Italy.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25908660" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Benefit, Brenda R -- McCrossin, Monte L -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Oct 30;350(6260):515-6. doi: 10.1126/science.aad0677.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Anthropology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA. bbenefit@nmsu.edu. ; Department of Anthropology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26516271" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Zehr, Jonathan P -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Sep 11;349(6253):1163-4. doi: 10.1126/science.aac9752.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Ocean Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA. zehrj@ucsc.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26359387" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Matzke, Nicholas J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 1;351(6268):28-30. doi: 10.1126/science.aad4057. Epub 2015 Dec 17.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia. Work began at: National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 USA. nick.matzke@anu.edu.au.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26678877" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Patience, C -- McKnight, A -- Clapham, P R -- Boyd, M T -- Weiss, R A -- Schulz, T F -- G117/547/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 May 20;264(5162):1159-60; author reply 1162-5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7909960" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: An activity that severs stable microtubules is thought to be involved in microtubule reorganization during the cell cycle. Here, a 48-kilodalton microtubule-severing protein was purified from Xenopus eggs and identified as translational elongation factor 1 alpha (EF-1 alpha). Bacterially expressed human EF-1 alpha also displayed microtubule-severing activity in vitro and, when microinjected into fibroblasts, induced rapid and transient fragmentation of cytoplasmic microtubule arrays. Thus, EF-1 alpha, an essential component of the eukaryotic translational apparatus, appears to have a second role as a regulator of cytoskeletal rearrangements.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Shiina, N -- Gotoh, Y -- Kubomura, N -- Iwamatsu, A -- Nishida, E -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Oct 14;266(5183):282-5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Kyoto University, Japan.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7939665" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: In Drosophila, the misexpression or altered activity of genes from the bithorax complex results in homeotic transformations. One of these genes, abd-A, normally specifies the identity of the second through fourth abdominal segments (A2 to A4). In the dominant Hyperabdominal mutations (Hab), portions of the third thoracic segment (T3) are transformed toward A2 as the result of ectopic abd-A expression. Sequence analysis and deoxyribonuclease I footprinting demonstrate that the misexpression of abd-A in two independent Hab mutations results from the same single base change in a binding site for the gap gene Kruppel protein. These results establish that the spatial limits of the homeotic genes are directly regulated by gap gene products.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Shimell, M J -- Simon, J -- Bender, W -- O'Connor, M B -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 May 13;264(5161):968-71.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, University of California, Irvine 92717.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7909957" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The nucleoli of vertebrate cells contain a number of small RNAs that are generated by the processing of intron fragments of protein-coding gene transcripts. The host gene (UHG) for intro-encoded human U22 is unusual in that it specifies a polyadenylated but apparently noncoding RNA. Depletion of U22 from Xenopus oocytes by oligonucleotide-directed ribonuclease H targeting prevented the processing of 18S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) at both ends. The appearance of 18S rRNA was restored by injection of in vitro-synthesized U22 RNA. These results identify a cellular function for an intron-encoded small RNA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tycowski, K T -- Shu, M D -- Steitz, J A -- GM26154/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Dec 2;266(5190):1558-61.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06536.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7985025" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The splicing of group II introns occurs in two steps involving substrates with different chemical configurations. The question of whether these two steps are catalyzed by a single or two separate active sites is a matter of debate. Here, certain bases and phosphate oxygen atoms at conserved positions in domain V of a group II self-splicing intron are shown to be required for catalysis of both splicing steps. These results show that the active sites catalyzing the two steps must, at least, share common components, ruling out the existence of two completely distinct active sites in group II introns.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Chanfreau, G -- Jacquier, A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Nov 25;266(5189):1383-7.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Unite de Genetique Moleculaire des Levures, URA 1149 du CNRS, Departement de Biologie Moleculaire, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7973729" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The rate at which the TATA-binding protein (TBP) interacts with the TATA element and promotes transcription by RNA polymerase II was determined in yeast cells. A TBP derivative with altered TATA-element specificity was rapidly induced, and transcription from promoters with appropriately mutated TATA elements was measured. Without a functional activator protein, basal transcription was observed only after a lag of several hours. In contrast, GCN4-activated transcription occurred rapidly upon induction of the TBP derivative. These results suggest that accessibility of TBP to the chromatin template in vivo is rate limiting and that activation domains increase recruitment of TBP to the promoter.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Klein, C -- Struhl, K -- GM30186/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Oct 14;266(5183):280-2.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7939664" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: An activity in human cell extracts is described that repairs DNA with loops of five or more unpaired bases. Repair is strand-specific and is directed by a nick located 5' or 3' to the loop. This repair is observed in a colorectal cancer cell line that is devoid of a wild-type hMLH1 gene and is deficient in repair of mismatches. However, a cell line with deletions in both hMSH2 alleles is deficient in repair of both loops and mismatches. Defects in loop repair may be relevant to the repetitive-sequence instability observed in cancers and other hereditary diseases.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Umar, A -- Boyer, J C -- Kunkel, T A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Nov 4;266(5186):814-6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7973637" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The Xlsirts are a family of transcribed repeat sequence genes that do not code for protein. Xlsirt RNAs become localized to the vegetal cortex of Xenopus oocytes early in oogenesis, before the localization of the messenger RNA Vg1, which encodes a transforming growth factor-beta-like molecule involved in mesoderm formation, and coincident with the localization of Xcat2 transcripts, which encode a nanos-like molecule. Destruction of the localized Xlsirts by injection of antisense oligodeoxynucleotides into stage 4 oocytes resulted in the release of Vg1 transcripts but not Xcat2 transcripts from the vegetal cortex. Xlsirt RNAs, which may be a structural component of the vegetal cortex, are a crucial part of a genetic pathway necessary for the proper localization of Vg1 that leads to subsequent normal pattern formation.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kloc, M -- Etkin, L D -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Aug 19;265(5175):1101-3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7520603" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Two ternary complexes of rat DNA polymerase beta (pol beta), a DNA template-primer, and dideoxycytidine triphosphate (ddCTP) have been determined at 2.9 A and 3.6 A resolution, respectively. ddCTP is the triphosphate of dideoxycytidine (ddC), a nucleoside analog that targets the reverse transcriptase of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and is at present used to treat AIDS. Although crystals of the two complexes belong to different space groups, the structures are similar, suggesting that the polymerase-DNA-ddCTP interactions are not affected by crystal packing forces. In the pol beta active site, the attacking 3'-OH of the elongating primer, the ddCTP phosphates, and two Mg2+ ions are all clustered around Asp190, Asp192, and Asp256. Two of these residues, Asp190 and Asp256, are present in the amino acid sequences of all polymerases so far studied and are also spatially similar in the four polymerases--the Klenow fragment of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I, HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, T7 RNA polymerase, and rat DNA pol beta--whose crystal structures are now known. A two-metal ion mechanism is described for the nucleotidyl transfer reaction and may apply to all polymerases. In the ternary complex structures analyzed, pol beta binds to the DNA template-primer in a different manner from that recently proposed for other polymerase-DNA models.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pelletier, H -- Sawaya, M R -- Kumar, A -- Wilson, S H -- Kraut, J -- CA17374/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- ES06839/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/ -- GM10928/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Jun 24;264(5167):1891-903.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Chemistry, University of California, San Diego 92093-0317.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7516580" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Noninfectious, cytoplasmically transmissible viral double-stranded RNAs of the genus Hypovirus cause reduced virulence (hypovirulence) in the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, providing the basis for virus-mediated biological control of a fungal disease. Synthetic transcripts corresponding to a full-length hypovirus RNA coding strand are infectious when introduced into fungal spheroplasts by electroporation. Hypovirus infections were readily established in Cryphonectria parasitica and in related fungal species not previously reported to harbor viruses. These results demonstrate the use of a synthetic mycovirus transcript to expand fungal host range, thereby broadening the potential application of virus-mediated hypovirulence to control fungal pathogenesis.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Chen, B -- Choi, G H -- Nuss, D L -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Jun 17;264(5166):1762-4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Roche Research Center, Nutley, NJ 07110.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8209256" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Strategies to cleave double-stranded DNA at specific DNA sites longer than those of restriction endonucleases (longer than 8 base pairs) have applications in chromosome mapping, chromosome cloning, and chromosome sequencing--provided that the strategies yield high DNA-cleavage efficiency and high DNA-cleavage specificity. In this report, the DNA-cleaving moiety copper:o-phenanthroline was attached to the sequence-specific DNA binding protein catabolite activator protein (CAP) at an amino acid that, because of a difference in DNA bending, is close to DNA in the specific CAP-DNA complex but is not close to DNA in the nonspecific CAP-DNA complex. The resulting CAP derivative, OP26CAP, cleaved kilobase and megabase DNA substrates at a 22-base pair consensus DNA site with high efficiency and exhibited no detectable nonspecific DNA-cleavage activity.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pendergrast, P S -- Ebright, Y W -- Ebright, R H -- GM41376/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Aug 12;265(5174):959-62.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08855.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8052855" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: The venom of the funnel-web spider Agelenopsis aperta contains several peptides that paralyze prey by blocking voltage-sensitive calcium channels. Two peptides, omega-Aga-IVB (IVB) and omega-Aga-IVC (IVC), have identical amino acid sequences, yet have opposite absolute configurations at serine 46. These toxins had similar selectivities for blocking voltage-sensitive calcium channel subtypes but different potencies for blocking P-type voltage-sensitive calcium channels in rat cerebellar Purkinje cells as well as calcium-45 influx into rat brain synaptosomes. An enzyme purified from venom converts IVC to IVB by isomerizing serine 46, which is present in the carboxyl-terminal tail, from the L to the D configuration. Unlike the carboxyl terminus of IVC, that of IVB was resistant to the major venom protease. These results show enzymatic activities in A. aperta venom being used in an unprecedented strategy for coproduction of necessary neurotoxins that possess enhanced stability and potency.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Heck, S D -- Siok, C J -- Krapcho, K J -- Kelbaugh, P R -- Thadeio, P F -- Welch, M J -- Williams, R D -- Ganong, A H -- Kelly, M E -- Lanzetti, A J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Nov 11;266(5187):1065-8.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉NPS Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7973665" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Alteration of the human mismatch repair gene hMSH2 has been linked to the microsatellite DNA instability found in hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer and several sporadic cancers. This microsatellite DNA instability is thought to arise from defective repair of DNA replication errors that create insertion-deletion loop-type (IDL) mismatched nucleotides. Here, it is shown that purified hMSH2 protein efficiently and specifically binds DNA containing IDL mismatches of up to 14 nucleotides. These results support a direct role for hMSH2 in mutation avoidance and microsatellite stability in human cells.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fishel, R -- Ewel, A -- Lee, S -- Lescoe, M K -- Griffith, J -- CA56542/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- GM31819/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- GM42342/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Nov 25;266(5189):1403-5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Markey Center for Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont School of Medicine, Burlington 05405.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7973733" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: As a step toward developing poliovirus as a vaccine vector, poliovirus recombinants were constructed by fusing exogenous peptides (up to 400 amino acids) and an artificial cleavage site for viral protease 3Cpro to the amino terminus of the viral polyprotein. Viral replication proceeded normally. An extended polyprotein was produced in infected cells and proteolytically processed into the complete array of viral proteins plus the foreign peptide, which was excluded from mature virions. The recombinants retained exogenous sequences through successive rounds of replication in culture and in vivo. Infection of animals with recombinants elicited a humoral immune response to the foreign peptides.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Andino, R -- Silvera, D -- Suggett, S D -- Achacoso, P L -- Miller, C J -- Baltimore, D -- Feinberg, M B -- AI22346/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI35545/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- RR00169/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Sep 2;265(5177):1448-51.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8073288" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Flam, F -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1994 Nov 25;266(5189):1320.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7973718" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉