ALBERT

Description: Author: Leslie K. Ferrarelli

Description: Author: Guy Riddihough

Description: Staphylococcus aureus is a Gram-positive bacterium that is a leading cause of life-threatening infections in humans. Knowledge of how this pathogen colonizes the human host and causes disease is crucial for the development of strategies to prevent and treat S. aureus infections (see the image, next page). On page 1105 of this issue, Ghssein et al. report the discovery, isolation, and functional evaluation of staphylopine (see the figure), a compound biosynthesized by S. aureus that captures metal ions from the pathogen's surroundings and thereby enables it to grow (1). Author: Elizabeth M. Nolan

Description: Author: Nicolas S. Wigginton

Description: Author: Guy Riddihough

Description: Primordial sequence signatures in modern proteins imply ancestral origins tracing back to simple peptides. Although short peptides seldom adopt unique folds, metal ions might have templated their assembly into higher-order structures in early evolution and imparted useful chemical reactivity. Recapitulating such a biogenetic scenario, we have combined design and laboratory evolution to transform a zinc-binding peptide into a globular enzyme capable of accelerating ester cleavage with exacting enantiospecificity and high catalytic efficiency ( k cat / K M ~ 10 6 M –1 s –1 ). The simultaneous optimization of structure and function in a naïve peptide scaffold not only illustrates a plausible enzyme evolutionary pathway from the distant past to the present but also proffers exciting future opportunities for enzyme design and engineering.

Description: Cryo–electron microscopy, or simply cryo-EM, refers mainly to three very different yet closely related techniques: electron crystallography, single-particle cryo-EM, and electron cryotomography. In the past few years, single-particle cryo-EM in particular has triggered a revolution in structural biology and has become a newly dominant discipline. This Review examines the fascinating story of its start and evolution over the past 40-plus years, delves into how and why the recent technological advances have been so groundbreaking, and briefly considers where the technique may be headed in the future.

Description: Riback et al . (Reports, 13 October 2017, p. 238) used small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments to infer a degree of compaction for unfolded proteins in water versus chemical denaturant that is highly consistent with the results from Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) experiments. There is thus no "contradiction" between the two methods, nor evidence to support their claim that commonly used FRET fluorophores cause protein compaction.

Description: Best et al . claim that we provide no convincing basis to assert that a discrepancy remains between FRET and SAXS results on the dimensions of disordered proteins under physiological conditions. We maintain that a clear discrepancy is apparent in our and other recent publications, including results shown in the Best et al . comment. A plausible origin is fluorophore interactions in FRET experiments.

Description: Author: Nicholas S. Wigginton

Description: The S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) radical enzyme superfamily plays a central role in the biosynthesis of many vitamins, cofactors, and antibiotics. Radical SAM enzymes catalyze challenging chemical reactions such as C-H bond activation (1), ring contraction (2), and molecular skeletal rearrangements (3, 4). They overcome the dif culty of these reactions by forming a highly oxidizing radical species, 5′-deoxyadenosyl (5′-dAdo·), from SAM and a reduced iron-sulfur cluster (5). This radical species can selectively abstract a hydrogen atom from a substrate, enabling complex chemical transformations. There are more than 113,000 radical SAM enzymes, but only a small number are both biochemically and structurally characterized, and many of the reaction mechanisms remain enigmatic. On page 1320 of this issue, Sicoli et al. provide evidence for unexpected radical intermediates in the mechanism of the radical SAM enzyme NosL (6). Authors: Jennifer Bridwell-Rabb, Catherine L. Drennan

Description: About 500 to 600 million metric tons of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, are emitted annually worldwide; ~69% of this methane is produced biologically by anaerobic archaea known as methanogens (1). In some environments, methane emissions are partly offset by anaerobic methane oxidizing archaea (ANME) and aerobic methanotrophic bacteria (1). In methanogens, the methyl-coenzyme M reductase (MCR) enzyme uses a nickel-containing cofactor (F430) to catalyze the final step of methane synthesis (see the figure, panels A and B) (2, 3). The MCR reaction is reversible, and MCR may also catalyze the first step of methane oxidation by ANME (2). The MCR catalytic cycle begins with F430 in the reduced Ni(I) form (4), but what happens next has been unclear. On page 953 of this issue, Wongnate et al. (5) report evidence for a Ni(II)-thiolate intermediate. Authors: Thomas J. Lawton, Amy C. Rosenzweig

Description: Most biological oxygen consumption is carried out by membrane-integrated oxidases, which fall into three main classes. The heme-copper oxidases (HCOs) of mitochondria and many bacteria (1) have a binuclear active site that contains a heme and a copper atom. They achieve rapid, virtually complete reduction of oxygen to water. The alternative oxidases (AOXs) found in certain plants, fungi, and bacteria have a heme-free iron-iron reactive site (2) that confers nitric oxide–resistant respiration (3). The last class, the bacterial cytochrome bd–type oxidases (4), are found in many pathogenic bacteria and have a distinctive heme composition consisting of two hemes b and one heme d. On page 583 of this issue, Safarian et al. report the atomic-resolution structure of a cytochrome bd–type oxidase from Geobacillus thermodenitrificans (5). The structure will facilitate targeted and rational drug development against cytochrome bd–type oxidases. Authors: Gregory M. Cook, Robert K. Poole

Description: The Hedgehog (Hh) pathway involved in development and regeneration is activated by the extracellular binding of Hh to the membrane receptor Patched (Ptch). We report the structures of human Ptch1 alone and in complex with the N-terminal domain of human Sonic hedgehog (ShhN) at resolutions of 3.9 and 3.6 angstroms, respectively, as determined by cryo–electron microscopy. Ptch1 comprises two interacting extracellular domains, ECD1 and ECD2, and 12 transmembrane segments (TMs), with TMs 2 to 6 constituting the sterol-sensing domain (SSD). Two steroid-shaped densities are resolved in both structures, one enclosed by ECD1/2 and the other in the membrane-facing cavity of the SSD. Structure-guided mutational analysis shows that interaction between ShhN and Ptch1 is steroid-dependent. The structure of a steroid binding–deficient Ptch1 mutant displays pronounced conformational rearrangements.

Description: Super-resolution microscopy has overcome a long-held resolution barrier—the diffraction limit—in light microscopy and enabled visualization of previously invisible molecular details in biological systems. Since their conception, super-resolution imaging methods have continually evolved and can now be used to image cellular structures in three dimensions, multiple colors, and living systems with nanometer-scale resolution. These methods have been applied to answer questions involving the organization, interaction, stoichiometry, and dynamics of individual molecular building blocks and their integration into functional machineries in cells and tissues. In this Review, we provide an overview of super-resolution methods, their state-of-the-art capabilities, and their constantly expanding applications to biology, with a focus on the latter. We will also describe the current technical challenges and future advances anticipated in super-resolution imaging.

Description: Genomic DNA forms chromatin, in which the nucleosome is the repeating unit. The mechanism by which RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) transcribes the nucleosomal DNA remains unclear. Here we report the cryo–electron microscopy structures of RNAPII-nucleosome complexes in which RNAPII pauses at the superhelical locations SHL(–6), SHL(–5), SHL(–2), and SHL(–1) of the nucleosome. RNAPII pauses at the major histone-DNA contact sites, and the nucleosome interactions with the RNAPII subunits stabilize the pause. These structures reveal snapshots of nucleosomal transcription, in which RNAPII gradually tears DNA from the histone surface while preserving the histone octamer. The nucleosomes in the SHL(–1) complexes are bound to a "foreign" DNA segment, which might explain the histone transfer mechanism. These results provide the foundations for understanding chromatin transcription and epigenetic regulation.

Description: We describe a general computational approach to designing self-assembling helical filaments from monomeric proteins and use this approach to design proteins that assemble into micrometer-scale filaments with a wide range of geometries in vivo and in vitro. Cryo–electron microscopy structures of six designs are close to the computational design models. The filament building blocks are idealized repeat proteins, and thus the diameter of the filaments can be systematically tuned by varying the number of repeat units. The assembly and disassembly of the filaments can be controlled by engineered anchor and capping units built from monomers lacking one of the interaction surfaces. The ability to generate dynamic, highly ordered structures that span micrometers from protein monomers opens up possibilities for the fabrication of new multiscale metamaterials.

Description: Membrane proteins reside in lipid bilayers and are typically extracted from this environment for study, which often compromises their integrity. In this work, we ejected intact assemblies from membranes, without chemical disruption, and used mass spectrometry to define their composition. From Escherichia coli outer membranes, we identified a chaperone-porin association and lipid interactions in the β-barrel assembly machinery. We observed efflux pumps bridging inner and outer membranes, and from inner membranes we identified a pentameric pore of TonB, as well as the protein-conducting channel SecYEG in association with F 1 F O adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthase. Intact mitochondrial membranes from Bos taurus yielded respiratory complexes and fatty acid–bound dimers of the ADP (adenosine diphosphate)/ATP translocase (ANT-1). These results highlight the importance of native membrane environments for retaining small-molecule binding, subunit interactions, and associated chaperones of the membrane proteome.

Description: The precatalytic spliceosome (B complex) is preceded by the pre-B complex. Here we report the cryo–electron microscopy structures of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae pre-B and B complexes at average resolutions of 3.3 to 4.6 and 3.9 angstroms, respectively. In the pre-B complex, the duplex between the 5' splice site (5'SS) and U1 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) is recognized by Yhc1, Luc7, and the Sm ring. In the B complex, U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein is dissociated, the 5'-exon–5'SS sequences are translocated near U6 snRNA, and three B-specific proteins may orient the precursor messenger RNA. In both complexes, U6 snRNA is anchored to loop I of U5 snRNA, and the duplex between the branch point sequence and U2 snRNA is recognized by the SF3b complex. Structural analysis reveals the mechanism of assembly and activation for the yeast spliceosome.

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Merrigan, Kathleen -- Griffin, Timothy -- Wilde, Parke -- Robien, Kimberly -- Goldberg, Jeanne -- Dietz, William -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Oct 9;350(6257):165-6. doi: 10.1126/science.aab2031. Epub 2015 Oct 1.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, the George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. kmerrigan@gwu.edu. ; Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA. ; Milken Institute School of Public Health, the George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26429883" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: During rest, brain activity is synchronized between different regions widely distributed throughout the brain, forming functional networks. However, the molecular mechanisms supporting functional connectivity remain undefined. We show that functional brain networks defined with resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging can be recapitulated by using measures of correlated gene expression in a post mortem brain tissue data set. The set of 136 genes we identify is significantly enriched for ion channels. Polymorphisms in this set of genes significantly affect resting-state functional connectivity in a large sample of healthy adolescents. Expression levels of these genes are also significantly associated with axonal connectivity in the mouse. The results provide convergent, multimodal evidence that resting-state functional networks correlate with the orchestrated activity of dozens of genes linked to ion channel activity and synaptic function.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Richiardi, Jonas -- Altmann, Andre -- Milazzo, Anna-Clare -- Chang, Catie -- Chakravarty, M Mallar -- Banaschewski, Tobias -- Barker, Gareth J -- Bokde, Arun L W -- Bromberg, Uli -- Buchel, Christian -- Conrod, Patricia -- Fauth-Buhler, Mira -- Flor, Herta -- Frouin, Vincent -- Gallinat, Jurgen -- Garavan, Hugh -- Gowland, Penny -- Heinz, Andreas -- Lemaitre, Herve -- Mann, Karl F -- Martinot, Jean-Luc -- Nees, Frauke -- Paus, Tomas -- Pausova, Zdenka -- Rietschel, Marcella -- Robbins, Trevor W -- Smolka, Michael N -- Spanagel, Rainer -- Strohle, Andreas -- Schumann, Gunter -- Hawrylycz, Mike -- Poline, Jean-Baptiste -- Greicius, Michael D -- IMAGEN consortium -- 93558/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- R01 MH085772-01A1/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- R01NS073498/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- U54 EB020403/EB/NIBIB NIH HHS/ -- Department of Health/United Kingdom -- Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jun 12;348(6240):1241-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1255905. Epub 2015 Jun 11.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Functional Imaging in Neuropsychiatric Disorders Laboratory, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. Laboratory of Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. jonas.richiardi@unige.ch greicius@stanford.edu. ; Functional Imaging in Neuropsychiatric Disorders Laboratory, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. ; The War Related Illness and Injury Study Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA. Functional Imaging in Neuropsychiatric Disorders Laboratory, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. ; Advanced MRI Section, Laboratory of Functional and Molecular Imaging, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. ; Cerebral Imaging Centre, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, Canada. Departments of Psychiatry and Biomedical Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. ; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany. ; Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK. ; Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. ; Universitaetsklinikum Hamburg Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. ; Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK. Department of Psychiatry, Universite de Montreal, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Ste Justine Hospital, Montreal, Canada. ; Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany. ; Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany. ; Neurospin, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives, Paris, France. ; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Campus Charite Mitte, Charite-Universitatsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany. ; Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA. ; School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK. ; Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, INSERM Unit 1000 "Neuroimaging and Psychiatry," University Paris Sud, Orsay, France. INSERM Unit 1000 at Maison de Solenn, Assistance Publique Hopitaux de Paris (APHP), Cochin Hospital, University Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cite, Paris, France. ; Rotman Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK. ; The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. ; Department of Genetic Epidemiology in Psychiatry, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany. ; Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. ; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, and Neuroimaging Center, Technische Universitat Dresden, Dresden, Germany. ; Department of Psychopharmacology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Faculty of Clinical Medicine Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany. ; Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK. Medical Research Council (MRC) Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre, London, UK. ; Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA, USA. ; Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA. ; Functional Imaging in Neuropsychiatric Disorders Laboratory, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. jonas.richiardi@unige.ch greicius@stanford.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26068849" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Mervis, Jeffrey -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Jul 3;349(6243):16. doi: 10.1126/science.349.6243.16.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26138958" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are often characterized as remedies to educational disparities related to social class. Using data from 68 MOOCs offered by Harvard and MIT between 2012 and 2014, we found that course participants from the United States tended to live in more-affluent and better-educated neighborhoods than the average U.S. resident. Among those who did register for courses, students with greater socioeconomic resources were more likely to earn a certificate. Furthermore, these differences in MOOC access and completion were larger for adolescents and young adults, the traditional ages where people find on-ramps into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) coursework and careers. Our findings raise concerns that MOOCs and similar approaches to online learning can exacerbate rather than reduce disparities in educational outcomes related to socioeconomic status.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hansen, John D -- Reich, Justin -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Dec 4;350(6265):1245-8. doi: 10.1126/science.aab3782. Epub 2015 Dec 3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. john_hansen@mail.harvard.edu. ; Office of Digital Learning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26785488" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: It is unknown whether the human immune system frequently mounts a T cell response against mutations expressed by common epithelial cancers. Using a next-generation sequencing approach combined with high-throughput immunologic screening, we demonstrated that tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) from 9 out of 10 patients with metastatic gastrointestinal cancers contained CD4(+) and/or CD8(+) T cells that recognized one to three neo-epitopes derived from somatic mutations expressed by the patient's own tumor. There were no immunogenic epitopes shared between these patients. However, we identified in one patient a human leukocyte antigen-C*08:02-restricted T cell receptor from CD8(+) TILs that targeted the KRAS(G12D) hotspot driver mutation found in many human cancers. Thus, a high frequency of patients with common gastrointestinal cancers harbor immunogenic mutations that can potentially be exploited for the development of highly personalized immunotherapies.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tran, Eric -- Ahmadzadeh, Mojgan -- Lu, Yong-Chen -- Gros, Alena -- Turcotte, Simon -- Robbins, Paul F -- Gartner, Jared J -- Zheng, Zhili -- Li, Yong F -- Ray, Satyajit -- Wunderlich, John R -- Somerville, Robert P -- Rosenberg, Steven A -- Intramural NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Dec 11;350(6266):1387-90. doi: 10.1126/science.aad1253. Epub 2015 Oct 29.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. ; Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. sar@mail.nih.gov.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26516200" 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: Monoclonal antibodies directed against cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4), such as ipilimumab, yield considerable clinical benefit for patients with metastatic melanoma by inhibiting immune checkpoint activity, but clinical predictors of response to these therapies remain incompletely characterized. To investigate the roles of tumor-specific neoantigens and alterations in the tumor microenvironment in the response to ipilimumab, we analyzed whole exomes from pretreatment melanoma tumor biopsies and matching germline tissue samples from 110 patients. For 40 of these patients, we also obtained and analyzed transcriptome data from the pretreatment tumor samples. Overall mutational load, neoantigen load, and expression of cytolytic markers in the immune microenvironment were significantly associated with clinical benefit. However, no recurrent neoantigen peptide sequences predicted responder patient populations. Thus, detailed integrated molecular characterization of large patient cohorts may be needed to identify robust determinants of response and resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Van Allen, Eliezer M -- Miao, Diana -- Schilling, Bastian -- Shukla, Sachet A -- Blank, Christian -- Zimmer, Lisa -- Sucker, Antje -- Hillen, Uwe -- Foppen, Marnix H Geukes -- Goldinger, Simone M -- Utikal, Jochen -- Hassel, Jessica C -- Weide, Benjamin -- Kaehler, Katharina C -- Loquai, Carmen -- Mohr, Peter -- Gutzmer, Ralf -- Dummer, Reinhard -- Gabriel, Stacey -- Wu, Catherine J -- Schadendorf, Dirk -- Garraway, Levi A -- U54 HG003067/HG/NHGRI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Oct 9;350(6257):207-11. doi: 10.1126/science.aad0095. Epub 2015 Sep 10.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Center for Cancer Precision Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. ; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. ; Department of Dermatology, University Hospital, University Duisburg-Essen, 45147 Essen, Germany. German Cancer Consortium(DKTK), 69121 Heidelberg, Germany. ; Department of Medical Oncology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, 1066 CX Amsterdam, Netherlands. ; Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland. ; Skin Cancer Unit, German Cancer Research Center(DKTK), 69121 Heidelberg, Germany. Skin Cancer Unit, German Cancer Research Center(DKTK), 69121 Heidelberg, Germany. Department of Dermatology, Venerology, and Allergology, University Medical Center, Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg, 68167 Mannheim, Germany. ; Department of Dermatology, University Hospital, Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. ; Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Tubingen, 72076 Tubingen, Germany. ; Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Kiel, 24105 Kiel, Germany. ; Department of Dermatology, University Medical Center, 55131 Mainz, Germany. ; Department of Dermatology, Elbe-Kliniken, 21614 Buxtehude, Germany. ; Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Skin Cancer Center Hannover, Hannover Medical School, 30625 Hannover, Germany. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. ; Department of Dermatology, University Hospital, University Duisburg-Essen, 45147 Essen, Germany. German Cancer Consortium(DKTK), 69121 Heidelberg, Germany. levi_garraway@dfci.harvard.edu dirk.schadendorf@uk-essen.de. ; Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Center for Cancer Precision Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA. levi_garraway@dfci.harvard.edu dirk.schadendorf@uk-essen.de.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26359337" 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: 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: 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: Antibodies targeting CTLA-4 have been successfully used as cancer immunotherapy. We find that the antitumor effects of CTLA-4 blockade depend on distinct Bacteroides species. In mice and patients, T cell responses specific for B. thetaiotaomicron or B. fragilis were associated with the efficacy of CTLA-4 blockade. Tumors in antibiotic-treated or germ-free mice did not respond to CTLA blockade. This defect was overcome by gavage with B. fragilis, by immunization with B. fragilis polysaccharides, or by adoptive transfer of B. fragilis-specific T cells. Fecal microbial transplantation from humans to mice confirmed that treatment of melanoma patients with antibodies against CTLA-4 favored the outgrowth of B. fragilis with anticancer properties. This study reveals a key role for Bacteroidales in the immunostimulatory effects of CTLA-4 blockade.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4721659/" 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/PMC4721659/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Vetizou, Marie -- Pitt, Jonathan M -- Daillere, Romain -- Lepage, Patricia -- Waldschmitt, Nadine -- Flament, Caroline -- Rusakiewicz, Sylvie -- Routy, Bertrand -- Roberti, Maria P -- Duong, Connie P M -- Poirier-Colame, Vichnou -- Roux, Antoine -- Becharef, Sonia -- Formenti, Silvia -- Golden, Encouse -- Cording, Sascha -- Eberl, Gerard -- Schlitzer, Andreas -- Ginhoux, Florent -- Mani, Sridhar -- Yamazaki, Takahiro -- Jacquelot, Nicolas -- Enot, David P -- Berard, Marion -- Nigou, Jerome -- Opolon, Paule -- Eggermont, Alexander -- Woerther, Paul-Louis -- Chachaty, Elisabeth -- Chaput, Nathalie -- Robert, Caroline -- Mateus, Christina -- Kroemer, Guido -- Raoult, Didier -- Boneca, Ivo Gomperts -- Carbonnel, Franck -- Chamaillard, Mathias -- Zitvogel, Laurence -- R01 CA161879/CA/NCI NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Nov 27;350(6264):1079-84. doi: 10.1126/science.aad1329. Epub 2015 Nov 5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institut de Cancerologie Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), 114 rue Edouard Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif, France. INSERM U1015, GRCC, Villejuif, France. University of Paris Sud XI, Kremlin-Bicetre, France. ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Micalis-UMR1319, 78360 Jouy-en-Josas, France. ; University of Lille, CNRS, INSERM, Centre Hospitalier Regional Universitaire de Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, U1019, UMR 8204, Centre d'Infection et d'Immunite de Lille (CIIL), F-59000 Lille, France. ; Institut de Cancerologie Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), 114 rue Edouard Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif, France. INSERM U1015, GRCC, Villejuif, France. Center of Clinical Investigations in Biotherapies of Cancer 1428, Villejuif, France. ; Institut de Cancerologie Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), 114 rue Edouard Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif, France. INSERM U1015, GRCC, Villejuif, France. University of Paris Sud XI, Kremlin-Bicetre, France. Center of Clinical Investigations in Biotherapies of Cancer 1428, Villejuif, France. ; Institut de Cancerologie Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), 114 rue Edouard Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif, France. INSERM U1015, GRCC, Villejuif, France. Universite Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cite, Paris, France. ; Department of Radiation Oncology, New York University, New York, NY, USA. ; Microenvironment and Immunity Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. ; Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Singapore. ; Department of Genetics and Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA. ; Institut de Cancerologie Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), 114 rue Edouard Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif, France. Universite Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cite, Paris, France. Metabolomics Platform, GRCC, Villejuif, France. ; Animalerie Centrale, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. ; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut de Pharmacologie et de Biologie Structurale (IPBS), Toulouse, France. Universite de Toulouse, Universite Paul Sabatier, IPBS, F-31077 Toulouse, France. ; Institut de Cancerologie Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), 114 rue Edouard Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif, France. ; Institut de Cancerologie Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), 114 rue Edouard Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif, France. INSERM U1015, GRCC, Villejuif, France. Department of Medical Oncology, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France. ; Service de microbiologie, GRCC, Villejuif, France. ; Institut de Cancerologie Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), 114 rue Edouard Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif, France. Laboratory of Immunomonitoring in Oncology, UMS 3655 CNRS/US 23 INSERM, GRCC, Villejuif, France. ; Institut de Cancerologie Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), 114 rue Edouard Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif, France. Department of Medical Oncology, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France. INSERM U981, GRCC, Villejuif, France. ; Institut de Cancerologie Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), 114 rue Edouard Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif, France. Department of Medical Oncology, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France. ; Universite Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cite, Paris, France. Metabolomics Platform, GRCC, Villejuif, France. INSERM U848, Villejuif, France. Equipe 11 Labellisee-Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer, Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers, INSERM U1138, Paris, France. Pole de Biologie, Hopital Europeen Georges Pompidou, Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris, Paris, France. ; Unite des Rickettsies, Faculte de Medecine, Universite de la Mediterranee, Marseille, France. ; Institut Pasteur, Unit of Biology and Genetics of the Bacterial Cell Wall, Paris, France. INSERM, Equipe Avenir, Paris, France. ; University of Paris Sud XI, Kremlin-Bicetre, France. Gastroenterology Department, Hopital Bicetre, Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris, Paris, France. ; Institut de Cancerologie Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus (GRCC), 114 rue Edouard Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif, France. INSERM U1015, GRCC, Villejuif, France. University of Paris Sud XI, Kremlin-Bicetre, France. Center of Clinical Investigations in Biotherapies of Cancer 1428, Villejuif, France. laurence.zitvogel@gustaveroussy.fr.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26541610" 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: Although people may endorse egalitarianism and tolerance, social biases can remain operative and drive harmful actions in an unconscious manner. Here, we investigated training to reduce implicit racial and gender bias. Forty participants processed counterstereotype information paired with one sound for each type of bias. Biases were reduced immediately after training. During subsequent slow-wave sleep, one sound was unobtrusively presented to each participant, repeatedly, to reactivate one type of training. Corresponding bias reductions were fortified in comparison with the social bias not externally reactivated during sleep. This advantage remained 1 week later, the magnitude of which was associated with time in slow-wave and rapid-eye-movement sleep after training. We conclude that memory reactivation during sleep enhances counterstereotype training and that maintaining a bias reduction is sleep-dependent.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4467959/" 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/PMC4467959/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Hu, Xiaoqing -- Antony, James W -- Creery, Jessica D -- Vargas, Iliana M -- Bodenhausen, Galen V -- Paller, Ken A -- F31 MH100958/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- F31-MH100958/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ -- T32 AG020506/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- T32-AG020418/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 May 29;348(6238):1013-5. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa3841.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA. ; Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. ; Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. ; Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. kap@northwestern.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26023137" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: We studied the distributional preferences of an elite cadre of Yale Law School students, a group that will assume positions of power in U.S. society. Our experimental design allows us to test whether redistributive decisions are consistent with utility maximization and to decompose underlying preferences into two qualitatively different tradeoffs: fair-mindedness versus self-interest, and equality versus efficiency. Yale Law School subjects are more consistent than subjects drawn from the American Life Panel, a diverse sample of Americans. Relative to the American Life Panel, Yale Law School subjects are also less fair-minded and substantially more efficiency-focused. We further show that our measure of equality-efficiency tradeoffs predicts Yale Law School students' career choices: Equality-minded subjects are more likely to be employed at nonprofit organizations.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fisman, Raymond -- Jakiela, Pamela -- Kariv, Shachar -- Markovits, Daniel -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Sep 18;349(6254):aab0096. doi: 10.1126/science.aab0096.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Economics, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA. rfisman@bu.edu. ; Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. ; Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, Berkely, CA, USA. ; Yale Law School, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26383958" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fraser, Barbara -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Dec 11;350(6266):1304. doi: 10.1126/science.350.6266.1304.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26659035" 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: Democracies depend on the support of the general population, but little is known about the determinants of this support. We investigated whether support for democracy increases with the length of time spent under the system and whether preferences are thus affected by the political system. Relying on 380,000 individual-level observations from 104 countries over the years 1994 to 2013, and exploiting individual-level variation within a country and a given year in the length of time spent under democracy, we find evidence that political preferences are endogenous. For new democracies, our findings imply that popular support needs time to develop. For example, the effect of around 8.5 more years of democratic experience corresponds to the difference in support for democracy between primary and secondary education.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Fuchs-Schundeln, Nicola -- Schundeln, Matthias -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Mar 6;347(6226):1145-8. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa0880.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Goethe University Frankfurt, 60320 Frankfurt, Germany. fuchs@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de schuendeln@wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25745172" 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: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurological disease with no effective treatment. We report the results of a moderate-scale sequencing study aimed at increasing the number of genes known to contribute to predisposition for ALS. We performed whole-exome sequencing of 2869 ALS patients and 6405 controls. Several known ALS genes were found to be associated, and TBK1 (the gene encoding TANK-binding kinase 1) was identified as an ALS gene. TBK1 is known to bind to and phosphorylate a number of proteins involved in innate immunity and autophagy, including optineurin (OPTN) and p62 (SQSTM1/sequestosome), both of which have also been implicated in ALS. These observations reveal a key role of the autophagic pathway in ALS and suggest specific targets for therapeutic intervention.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4437632/" 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/PMC4437632/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Cirulli, Elizabeth T -- Lasseigne, Brittany N -- Petrovski, Slave -- Sapp, Peter C -- Dion, Patrick A -- Leblond, Claire S -- Couthouis, Julien -- Lu, Yi-Fan -- Wang, Quanli -- Krueger, Brian J -- Ren, Zhong -- Keebler, Jonathan -- Han, Yujun -- Levy, Shawn E -- Boone, Braden E -- Wimbish, Jack R -- Waite, Lindsay L -- Jones, Angela L -- Carulli, John P -- Day-Williams, Aaron G -- Staropoli, John F -- Xin, Winnie W -- Chesi, Alessandra -- Raphael, Alya R -- McKenna-Yasek, Diane -- Cady, Janet -- Vianney de Jong, J M B -- Kenna, Kevin P -- Smith, Bradley N -- Topp, Simon -- Miller, Jack -- Gkazi, Athina -- FALS Sequencing Consortium -- Al-Chalabi, Ammar -- van den Berg, Leonard H -- Veldink, Jan -- Silani, Vincenzo -- Ticozzi, Nicola -- Shaw, Christopher E -- Baloh, Robert H -- Appel, Stanley -- Simpson, Ericka -- Lagier-Tourenne, Clotilde -- Pulst, Stefan M -- Gibson, Summer -- Trojanowski, John Q -- Elman, Lauren -- McCluskey, Leo -- Grossman, Murray -- Shneider, Neil A -- Chung, Wendy K -- Ravits, John M -- Glass, Jonathan D -- Sims, Katherine B -- Van Deerlin, Vivianna M -- Maniatis, Tom -- Hayes, Sebastian D -- Ordureau, Alban -- Swarup, Sharan -- Landers, John -- Baas, Frank -- Allen, Andrew S -- Bedlack, Richard S -- Harper, J Wade -- Gitler, Aaron D -- Rouleau, Guy A -- Brown, Robert -- Harms, Matthew B -- Cooper, Gregory M -- Harris, Tim -- Myers, Richard M -- Goldstein, David B -- 089701/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- K08 NS075094/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- P01 AG017586/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- P01 AG032953/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- P50 AG025688/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R37 NS033123/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- R37 NS083524/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/ -- T32 GM007754/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- TL1 TR001066/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/ -- UL1 TR001067/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Mar 27;347(6229):1436-41. doi: 10.1126/science.aaa3650. Epub 2015 Feb 19.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27708, USA. ; HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Huntsville, AL 35806, USA. ; Institute for Genomic Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. ; Department of Neurology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01655, USA. ; Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2B4, Canada. ; Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. ; Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27708, USA. ; Biogen Idec, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. ; Neurogenetics DNA Diagnostic Laboratory, Center for Human Genetics Research, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ; Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. ; Department of Genome Analysis, Academic Medical Center, Meibergdreef 9, 1105AZ Amsterdam, Netherlands. ; Academic Unit of Neurology, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Republic of Ireland. ; Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London SE5 8AF, UK. ; Department of Neurology, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Centre Utrecht, 3508 GA Utrecht, Netherlands. ; Department of Neurology and Laboratory of Neuroscience, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan 20149, Italy, and Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Dino Ferrari Center, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Milan 20122, Italy. ; Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA. ; Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA, and Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA. ; Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. ; Department of Neurology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA. ; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. ; Department of Neurology, Penn ALS Center, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. ; Department of Neurology, Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. ; Department of Neurology, Center for Motor Neuron Biology and Disease, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. ; Department of Pediatrics and Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. ; Department of Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. ; Department of Neurology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. ; Biogen Idec, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ; Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. ; Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27708, USA. ; Duke ALS Clinic and Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC 27708, USA. ; Biogen Idec, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. tim.harris@biogenidec.com.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25700176" 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: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Amigo, Ignacio -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Dec 4;350(6265):1286. doi: 10.1126/science.350.6265.1286.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Ignacio Amigo is a postdoctoral researcher in the biochemistry department of the Chemistry Institute at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. Send your story to SciCareerEditor@aaas.org.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26785493" 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: Research suggesting that political conservatives are happier than political liberals has relied exclusively on self-report measures of subjective well-being. We show that this finding is fully mediated by conservatives' self-enhancing style of self-report (study 1; N = 1433) and then describe three studies drawing from "big data" sources to assess liberal-conservative differences in happiness-related behavior (studies 2 to 4; N = 4936). Relative to conservatives, liberals more frequently used positive emotional language in their speech and smiled more intensely and genuinely in photographs. Our results were consistent across large samples of online survey takers, U.S. politicians, Twitter users, and LinkedIn users. Our findings illustrate the nuanced relationship between political ideology, self-enhancement, and happiness and illuminate the contradictory ways that happiness differences can manifest across behavior and self-reports.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Wojcik, Sean P -- Hovasapian, Arpine -- Graham, Jesse -- Motyl, Matt -- Ditto, Peter H -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Mar 13;347(6227):1243-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1260817.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. swojcik@uci.edu phditto@uci.edu. ; Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. ; Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, CA 90089, USA. ; University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25766233" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: 〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Kaiser, Jocelyn -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2015 Feb 20;347(6224):817. doi: 10.1126/science.347.6224.817.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25700496" 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: 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: 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: 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: Ebola virus disease in humans is highly lethal, with case fatality rates ranging from 25 to 90%. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine against the virus, underscoring the need for efficacious countermeasures. We ascertained that a human survivor of the 1995 Kikwit Ebola virus disease outbreak maintained circulating antibodies against the Ebola virus surface glycoprotein for more than a decade after infection. From this survivor we isolated monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that neutralize recent and previous outbreak variants of Ebola virus and mediate antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity in vitro. Strikingly, monotherapy with mAb114 protected macaques when given as late as 5 days after challenge. Treatment with a single human mAb suggests that a simplified therapeutic strategy for human Ebola infection may be possible.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Corti, Davide -- Misasi, John -- Mulangu, Sabue -- Stanley, Daphne A -- Kanekiyo, Masaru -- Wollen, Suzanne -- Ploquin, Aurelie -- Doria-Rose, Nicole A -- Staupe, Ryan P -- Bailey, Michael -- Shi, Wei -- Choe, Misook -- Marcus, Hadar -- Thompson, Emily A -- Cagigi, Alberto -- Silacci, Chiara -- Fernandez-Rodriguez, Blanca -- Perez, Laurent -- Sallusto, Federica -- Vanzetta, Fabrizia -- Agatic, Gloria -- Cameroni, Elisabetta -- Kisalu, Neville -- Gordon, Ingelise -- Ledgerwood, Julie E -- Mascola, John R -- Graham, Barney S -- Muyembe-Tamfun, Jean-Jacques -- Trefry, John C -- Lanzavecchia, Antonio -- Sullivan, Nancy J -- Intramural NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Mar 18;351(6279):1339-42. doi: 10.1126/science.aad5224. Epub 2016 Feb 25.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Universita della Svizzera Italiana, CH-6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland. Humabs BioMed SA, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland. ; Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. ; U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, MD 21702, USA. ; Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Universita della Svizzera Italiana, CH-6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland. ; Humabs BioMed SA, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland. ; National Institute for Biomedical Research, National Laboratory of Public Health, Kinshasa B.P. 1197, Democratic Republic of the Congo. ; Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Universita della Svizzera Italiana, CH-6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland. Institute of Microbiology, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland. ; Vaccine Research Center, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. njsull@mail.nih.gov.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26917593" 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: Steroids regulate cell proliferation, tissue development, and cell signaling via two pathways: a nuclear receptor mechanism and genome-independent signaling. Sperm activation, egg maturation, and steroid-induced anesthesia are executed via the latter pathway, the key components of which remain unknown. Here, we present characterization of the human sperm progesterone receptor that is conveyed by the orphan enzyme alpha/beta hydrolase domain-containing protein 2 (ABHD2). We show that ABHD2 is highly expressed in spermatozoa, binds progesterone, and acts as a progesterone-dependent lipid hydrolase by depleting the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2AG) from plasma membrane. The 2AG inhibits the sperm calcium channel (CatSper), and its removal leads to calcium influx via CatSper and ensures sperm activation. This study reveals that progesterone-activated endocannabinoid depletion by ABHD2 is a general mechanism by which progesterone exerts its genome-independent action and primes sperm for fertilization.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Miller, Melissa R -- Mannowetz, Nadja -- Iavarone, Anthony T -- Safavi, Rojin -- Gracheva, Elena O -- Smith, James F -- Hill, Rose Z -- Bautista, Diana M -- Kirichok, Yuriy -- Lishko, Polina V -- 1S10OD020062-01/OD/NIH HHS/ -- R01 AR059385/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- R01AR059385/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- R01GM111802/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01HD068914/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- R21HD081403/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- S10RR025622/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 29;352(6285):555-9. doi: 10.1126/science.aad6887. Epub 2016 Mar 17.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. ; QB3/Chemistry Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. ; Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology; Department of Neuroscience, Program in Cellular Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration, and Repair (CNNR), Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06536, USA. ; Department of Urology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. ; Department of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA. ; Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. lishko@berkeley.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26989199" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Examining complete gene knockouts within a viable organism can inform on gene function. We sequenced the exomes of 3222 British adults of Pakistani heritage with high parental relatedness, discovering 1111 rare-variant homozygous genotypes with predicted loss of function (knockouts) in 781 genes. We observed 13.7% fewer homozygous knockout genotypes than we expected, implying an average load of 1.6 recessive-lethal-equivalent loss-of-function (LOF) variants per adult. When genetic data were linked to the individuals' lifelong health records, we observed no significant relationship between gene knockouts and clinical consultation or prescription rate. In this data set, we identified a healthy PRDM9-knockout mother and performed phased genome sequencing on her, her child, and control individuals. Our results show that meiotic recombination sites are localized away from PRDM9-dependent hotspots. Thus, natural LOF variants inform on essential genetic loci and demonstrate PRDM9 redundancy in humans.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Narasimhan, Vagheesh M -- Hunt, Karen A -- Mason, Dan -- Baker, Christopher L -- Karczewski, Konrad J -- Barnes, Michael R -- Barnett, Anthony H -- Bates, Chris -- Bellary, Srikanth -- Bockett, Nicholas A -- Giorda, Kristina -- Griffiths, Christopher J -- Hemingway, Harry -- Jia, Zhilong -- Kelly, M Ann -- Khawaja, Hajrah A -- Lek, Monkol -- McCarthy, Shane -- McEachan, Rosie -- O'Donnell-Luria, Anne -- Paigen, Kenneth -- Parisinos, Constantinos A -- Sheridan, Eamonn -- Southgate, Laura -- Tee, Louise -- Thomas, Mark -- Xue, Yali -- Schnall-Levin, Michael -- Petkov, Petko M -- Tyler-Smith, Chris -- Maher, Eamonn R -- Trembath, Richard C -- MacArthur, Daniel G -- Wright, John -- Durbin, Richard -- van Heel, David A -- GM 099640/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- MR/M009017/1/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- R01 GM104371/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01GM104371/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- WT098051/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- WT099769/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- WT101597/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- WT102627/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- British Heart Foundation/United Kingdom -- Arthritis Research UK/United Kingdom -- Cancer Research UK/United Kingdom -- Department of Health/United Kingdom -- Chief Scientist Office/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 22;352(6284):474-7. doi: 10.1126/science.aac8624. Epub 2016 Mar 3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK. ; Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AT, UK. ; Bradford Institute for Health Research, Bradford Teaching Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust, Bradford BD9 6RJ, UK. ; Center for Genome Dynamics, The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, USA. ; Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA. ; William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AT, UK. ; Diabetes and Endocrine Centre, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust and University of Birmingham, Birmingham B9 5SS, UK. ; TPP, Mill House, Troy Road, Leeds LS18 5TN, UK. ; Aston Research Centre for Healthy Ageing, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK. ; 10X Genomics, 7068 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 415, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA. ; Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, London NW1 2DA, UK. Institute of Health Informatics, University College London, London NW1 2DA, UK. ; School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. ; Department of Medical Genetics, University of Cambridge and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, Box 238, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK. Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK. ; Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AT, UK. Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, London SE1 1UL, UK. ; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK. rd@sanger.ac.uk d.vanheel@qmul.ac.uk. ; Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AT, UK. rd@sanger.ac.uk d.vanheel@qmul.ac.uk.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26940866" 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: In a classical view of hematopoiesis, the various blood cell lineages arise via a hierarchical scheme starting with multipotent stem cells that become increasingly restricted in their differentiation potential through oligopotent and then unipotent progenitors. We developed a cell-sorting scheme to resolve myeloid (My), erythroid (Er), and megakaryocytic (Mk) fates from single CD34(+) cells and then mapped the progenitor hierarchy across human development. Fetal liver contained large numbers of distinct oligopotent progenitors with intermingled My, Er, and Mk fates. However, few oligopotent progenitor intermediates were present in the adult bone marrow. Instead, only two progenitor classes predominate, multipotent and unipotent, with Er-Mk lineages emerging from multipotent cells. The developmental shift to an adult "two-tier" hierarchy challenges current dogma and provides a revised framework to understand normal and disease states of human hematopoiesis.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Notta, Faiyaz -- Zandi, Sasan -- Takayama, Naoya -- Dobson, Stephanie -- Gan, Olga I -- Wilson, Gavin -- Kaufmann, Kerstin B -- McLeod, Jessica -- Laurenti, Elisa -- Dunant, Cyrille F -- McPherson, John D -- Stein, Lincoln D -- Dror, Yigal -- Dick, John E -- Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Canada -- Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Jan 8;351(6269):aab2116. doi: 10.1126/science.aab2116. Epub 2015 Nov 5.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ; Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ; Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ; Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. ; Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, LMC, Station 12, Lausanne, CH-1015, Switzerland. ; Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ; The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ; Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. jdick@uhnres.utoronto.ca.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26541609" 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: Influenza A virus (IAV) causes up to half a million deaths worldwide annually, 90% of which occur in older adults. We show that IAV-infected monocytes from older humans have impaired antiviral interferon production but retain intact inflammasome responses. To understand the in vivo consequence, we used mice expressing a functional Mx gene encoding a major interferon-induced effector against IAV in humans. In Mx1-intact mice with weakened resistance due to deficiencies in Mavs and Tlr7, we found an elevated respiratory bacterial burden. Notably, mortality in the absence of Mavs and Tlr7 was independent of viral load or MyD88-dependent signaling but dependent on bacterial burden, caspase-1/11, and neutrophil-dependent tissue damage. Therefore, in the context of weakened antiviral resistance, vulnerability to IAV disease is a function of caspase-dependent pathology.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Pillai, Padmini S -- Molony, Ryan D -- Martinod, Kimberly -- Dong, Huiping -- Pang, Iris K -- Tal, Michal C -- Solis, Angel G -- Bielecki, Piotr -- Mohanty, Subhasis -- Trentalange, Mark -- Homer, Robert J -- Flavell, Richard A -- Wagner, Denisa D -- Montgomery, Ruth R -- Shaw, Albert C -- Staeheli, Peter -- Iwasaki, Akiko -- 5T32HL066987-13/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- AI062428/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI064705/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- AI081884/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- F31 AG039163/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- HHSN272201100019C/PHS HHS/ -- K24 AG02489/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- K24 AG042489/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- N01 AI500031/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- P30 AG21342/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01HL102101/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- R01HL125501/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/ -- T32 AI007019-36/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- T32 AI007019-38/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- T32 AI055403/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/ -- Howard Hughes Medical Institute/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2016 Apr 22;352(6284):463-6. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf3926.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. ; Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. ; Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. ; Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. ; Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. ; Department of Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. ; Section of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. ; Institut fur Medizinische Mikrobiologie und Hygiene, Institute of Virology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Strasse 11, 79104 Freiburg, Germany. ; Department of Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. akiko.iwasaki@yale.edu.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27102485" 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: A parabolic relationship between lens radius and refractive index allows spherical lenses to avoid spherical aberration. We show that in squid, patchy colloidal physics resulted from an evolutionary radiation of globular S-crystallin proteins. Small-angle x-ray scattering experiments on lens tissue show colloidal gels of S-crystallins at all radial positions. Sparse lens materials form via low-valence linkages between disordered loops protruding from the protein surface. The loops are polydisperse and bind via a set of hydrogen bonds between disordered side chains. Peripheral lens regions with low particle valence form stable, volume-spanning gels at low density, whereas central regions with higher average valence gel at higher densities. The proteins demonstrate an evolved set of linkers for self-assembly of nanoparticles into volumetric materials.

Description: In the early stage of transcription, eukaryotic RNA polymerase II (Pol II) exchanges initiation factors with elongation factors to form an elongation complex for processive transcription. Here we report the structure of the Pol II elongation complex bound with the basal elongation factors Spt4/5, Elf1, and TFIIS. Spt4/5 (the Spt4/Spt5 complex) and Elf1 modify a wide area of the Pol II surface. Elf1 bridges the Pol II central cleft, completing a "DNA entry tunnel" for downstream DNA. Spt4 and the Spt5 NGN and KOW1 domains encircle the upstream DNA, constituting a "DNA exit tunnel." The Spt5 KOW4 and KOW5 domains augment the "RNA exit tunnel," directing the exiting nascent RNA. Thus, the elongation complex establishes a completely different transcription and regulation platform from that of the initiation complexes.

Description: NAD + (oxidized form of NAD:nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide)–reducing soluble [NiFe]-hydrogenase (SH) is phylogenetically related to NADH (reduced form of NAD + ):quinone oxidoreductase (complex I), but the geometrical arrangements of the subunits and Fe–S clusters are unclear. Here, we describe the crystal structures of SH in the oxidized and reduced states. The cluster arrangement is similar to that of complex I, but the subunits orientation is not, which supports the hypothesis that subunits evolved as prebuilt modules. The oxidized active site includes a six-coordinate Ni, which is unprecedented for hydrogenases, whose coordination geometry would prevent O 2 from approaching. In the reduced state showing the normal active site structure without a physiological electron acceptor, the flavin mononucleotide cofactor is dissociated, which may be caused by the oxidation state change of nearby Fe–S clusters and may suppress production of reactive oxygen species.

Description: Silicon is found in nature in many inorganic forms, some of which are constructed by living organisms. Yet, no known biological molecule contains a carbon–silicon (C–Si) bond, and no biological processes to form C–Si bonds have been identified. On page 1048 of this issue, Kan et al. (1) show that natural as well as reengineered enzymes can promote C–Si bond formation. The resulting chiral compounds mostly consist of one of the two possible stereoisomers (enantiomers). Authors: Hendrik F. T. Klare, Martin Oestreich

Description: Small basic proteins present in most Archaea share a common ancestor with the eukaryotic core histones. We report the crystal structure of an archaeal histone-DNA complex. DNA wraps around an extended polymer, formed by archaeal histone homodimers, in a quasi-continuous superhelix with the same geometry as DNA in the eukaryotic nucleosome. Substitutions of a conserved glycine at the interface of adjacent protein layers destabilize archaeal chromatin, reduce growth rate, and impair transcription regulation, confirming the biological importance of the polymeric structure. Our data establish that the histone-based mechanism of DNA compaction predates the nucleosome, illuminating the origin of the nucleosome.

Description: Vinculin is an actin-binding protein thought to reinforce cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesions. However, how mechanical load affects the vinculin–F-actin bond is unclear. Using a single-molecule optical trap assay, we found that vinculin forms a force-dependent catch bond with F-actin through its tail domain, but with lifetimes that depend strongly on the direction of the applied force. Force toward the pointed (–) end of the actin filament resulted in a bond that was maximally stable at 8 piconewtons, with a mean lifetime (12 seconds) 10 times as long as the mean lifetime when force was applied toward the barbed (+) end. A computational model of lamellipodial actin dynamics suggests that the directionality of the vinculin–F-actin bond could establish long-range order in the actin cytoskeleton. The directional and force-stabilized binding of vinculin to F-actin may be a mechanism by which adhesion complexes maintain front-rear asymmetry in migrating cells.

Description: The arenavirus Lassa causes severe hemorrhagic fever and a significant disease burden in West Africa every year. The glycoprotein, GPC, is the sole antigen expressed on the viral surface and the critical target for antibody-mediated neutralization. Here we present the crystal structure of the trimeric, prefusion ectodomain of Lassa GP bound to a neutralizing antibody from a human survivor at 3.2-angstrom resolution. The antibody extensively anchors two monomers together at the base of the trimer, and biochemical analysis suggests that it neutralizes by inhibiting conformational changes required for entry. This work illuminates pH-driven conformational changes in both receptor-binding and fusion subunits of Lassa virus, illustrates the unique assembly of the arenavirus glycoprotein spike, and provides a much-needed template for vaccine design against these threats to global health.

Description: Hormones can transmit signals through adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) to precise intracellular locations. The fidelity of these responses relies on the activation of localized protein kinase A (PKA) holoenzymes. Association of PKA regulatory type II (RII) subunits with A-kinase–anchoring proteins (AKAPs) confers location, and catalytic (C) subunits phosphorylate substrates. Single-particle electron microscopy demonstrated that AKAP79 constrains RII-C subassemblies within 150 to 250 angstroms of its targets. Native mass spectrometry established that these macromolecular assemblies incorporated stoichiometric amounts of cAMP. Chemical-biology– and live cell–imaging techniques revealed that catalytically active PKA holoenzymes remained intact within the cytoplasm. These findings indicate that the parameters of anchored PKA holoenzyme action are much more restricted than originally anticipated.

Description: The multifunctional protein cytochrome c (cyt c) plays key roles in electron transport and apoptosis, switching function by modulating bonding between a heme iron and the sulfur in a methionine residue. This Fe–S(Met) bond is too weak to persist in the absence of protein constraints. We ruptured the bond in ferrous cyt c using an optical laser pulse and monitored the bond reformation within the protein active site using ultrafast x-ray pulses from an x-ray free-electron laser, determining that the Fe–S(Met) bond enthalpy is ~4 kcal/mol stronger than in the absence of protein constraints. The 4 kcal/mol is comparable with calculations of stabilization effects in other systems, demonstrating how biological systems use an entatic state for modest yet accessible energetics to modulate chemical function.