Lerchewestergaard1265

Variation in the acoustic structure of vocal signals is important to communicate social information. However, relatively little is known about the features that receivers extract to decipher relevant social information. Here, we took an expansive, bottom-up approach to delineate the feature space that could be important for processing social information in zebra finch song. Using operant techniques, we discovered that female zebra finches can consistently discriminate brief song phrases ("motifs") from different social contexts. We then applied machine learning algorithms to classify motifs based on thousands of time-series features and to uncover acoustic features for motif discrimination. In addition to highlighting classic acoustic features, the resulting algorithm revealed novel features for song discrimination, for example, measures of time irreversibility (i.e., the degree to which the statistical properties of the actual and time-reversed signal differ). Moreover, the algorithm accurately predicted female performance on individual motif exemplars. These data underscore and expand the promise of broad time-series phenotyping to acoustic analyses and social decision-making.Fertilization and seed development is a critical time in the plant life cycle, and coordinated development of the embryo and endosperm are required to produce a viable seed. In the endosperm, some genes show imprinted expression where transcripts are derived primarily from one parental genome. Imprinted gene expression has been observed across many flowering plant species, though only a small proportion of genes are imprinted. Understanding how imprinted expression arises has been complicated by the reliance on single nucleotide polymorphisms between alleles to enable testing for imprinting. Here, we develop a method to use whole genome assemblies of multiple genotypes to assess for imprinting of both shared and variable portions of the genome using data from reciprocal crosses. This reveals widespread maternal expression of genes and transposable elements with presence-absence variation within maize and across species. Most maternally expressed features are expressed primarily in the endosperm, suggesting that maternal de-repression in the central cell facilitates expression. Furthermore, maternally expressed TEs are enriched for maternal expression of the nearest gene, and read alignments over maternal TE-gene pairs indicate that these are fused rather than independent transcripts.Chronic pain is highly prevalent worldwide and imparts a significant socioeconomic and public health burden. Factors influencing susceptibility to, and mechanisms of, chronic pain development, are not fully understood, but sex is thought to play a significant role, and chronic pain is more prevalent in women than in men. To investigate sex differences in chronic pain, we carried out a sex-stratified genome-wide association study of Multisite Chronic Pain (MCP), a derived chronic pain phenotype, in UK Biobank on 178,556 men and 209,093 women, as well as investigating sex-specific genetic correlations with a range of psychiatric, autoimmune and anthropometric phenotypes and the relationship between sex-specific polygenic risk scores for MCP and chronic widespread pain. We also assessed whether MCP-associated genes showed expression pattern enrichment across tissues. A total of 123 SNPs at five independent loci were significantly associated with MCP in men. In women, a total of 286 genome-wide significant SNPs atral nervous-system component to chronic pain in both sexes, additionally highlighting a potential role for the DRG and nociception.Even with increasing awareness of sex-related differences in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), it remains unclear whether the progression of coronary atherosclerosis differs between women and men. We sought to compare coronary artery calcium (CAC) progression between women and men. From a retrospective, multicentre registry of consecutive asymptomatic individuals who underwent CAC scoring, we identified 9,675 men and 1,709 women with follow-up CAC scoring. At baseline, men were more likely to have a CAC score >0 than were women (47.8% vs. 28.6%). The probability of CAC progression at 5 years, defined as [√CAC score (follow-up)-√CAC score (baseline)] ≥2.5, was 47.4% in men and 29.7% in women (p less then 0.001). When we stratified subjects according to the 10-year ASCVD risk ( less then 5%, ≥5% and less then 7.5%, and ≥7.5%), a sex difference was observed in the low risk group (CAC progression at 5 years, 37.6% versus 17.9%; p less then 0.001). However, it became weaker as the 10-year ASCVD risk increased (64.2% versus 46.2%; p less then 0.001, and 74.8% versus 68.7%; p = 0.090). Multivariable analysis demonstrated that male sex was independently associated with CAC progression rate among the entire group (p less then 0.001). Ruboxistaurin in vitro Subgroup analyses showed an independent association between male sex and CAC progression rate only in the low-risk group. The CAC progression rate is higher in men than in women. However, the difference between women and men diminishes as the 10-year ASCVD risk increases.

Chagas disease is the third most important neglected tropical disease. There is no vaccine available, and only two drugs are generally prescribed for the treatment, both of which with a wide range of side effects. Our study of T. cruzi PHBs revealed a pleiotropic function in different stages of the parasite, participating actively in the transformation of the non-infective replicative epimastigote form into metacyclic trypomastigotes and also in the multiplication of intracellular amastigotes.

To obtain and confirm our results, we applied several tools and techniques such as electron microscopy, immuno-electron microscopy, bioinformatics analysis and molecular biology. We transfected T. cruzi clones with the PHB genes, in order to overexpress the proteins and performed a CRISPR/Cas9 disruption to obtain partially silenced PHB1 parasites or completely silenced PHB2 parasites. The function of these proteins was also studied in the biology of the parasite, specifically in the transformation rate from non-infective forms to the metacyclic infective forms, and in their capacity of intracellular multiplication.