Sykesbeier8874

Antarctica is home to an assortment of psychrophilic algae, which have evolved various survival strategies for coping with their frigid environments. Here, we explore Antarctic psychrophily by examining the ∼212 Mb draft nuclear genome of the green alga Chlamydomonas sp. UWO241, which resides within the water column of a perennially ice-covered, hypersaline lake. Like certain other Antarctic algae, UWO241 encodes a large number (≥37) of ice-binding proteins, putatively originating from horizontal gene transfer. CX4945 Even more striking, UWO241 harbors hundreds of highly similar duplicated genes involved in diverse cellular processes, some of which we argue are aiding its survival in the Antarctic via gene dosage. Gene and partial gene duplication appear to be an ongoing phenomenon within UWO241, one which might be mediated by retrotransposons. Ultimately, we consider how such a process could be associated with adaptation to extreme environments but explore potential non-adaptive hypotheses as well.Malaria remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the developing world. Recent work has implicated chromosome end stability and the repair of DNA breaks through telomere healing as potent drivers of variant antigen diversification, thus associating basic mechanisms for maintaining genome integrity with aspects of host-parasite interactions. Here we applied long-read sequencing technology to precisely examine the dynamics of telomere addition and chromosome end stabilization in response to double-strand breaks within subtelomeric regions. We observed that the process of telomere healing induces the initial synthesis of telomere repeats well in excess of the minimal number required for end stability. However, once stabilized, these newly created telomeres appear to function normally, eventually returning to a length nearing that of intact chromosome ends. These results parallel recent observations in humans, suggesting an evolutionarily conserved mechanism for chromosome end repair.Aloe vera is a species from Asphodelaceae family having characteristics like drought resistance and numerous medicinal properties. However, the genetic basis of these phenotypes is yet unknown primarily due to unavailability of its genome sequence. Thus, we report the first Aloe vera genome sequence comprising of 12.93 Gbp and harboring 86,177 protein-coding genes. It is the first genome from Asphodelaceae family and the largest angiosperm genome sequenced and assembled till date. We also report the first genome-wide phylogeny of monocots including Aloe vera to resolve its phylogenetic position. The comprehensive comparative analysis of Aloe vera with other available high-quality monocot genomes revealed adaptive evolution in several genes of drought stress response, CAM pathway, and circadian rhythm and positive selection in DNA damage response genes in Aloe vera. This study provides clues on the genetic basis of evolution of drought stress tolerance capabilities of Aloe vera.Interferon (IFN)-induced activation of the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) family is an important event in antiviral immunity. Here, we show that the nonreceptor kinases c-Abl and Arg directly interact with STAT1 and potentiate the phosphorylation of STAT1 on Y701. c-Abl/Arg could mediate STAT1 phosphorylation independent of Janus kinases in the absence of IFNγ and potentiate IFNγ-mediated STAT1 phosphorylation. Moreover, STAT1 dimerization, nuclear translocation, and downstream gene transcription are regulated by c-Abl/Arg. c-Abl/Arg (abl1/abl2) deficiency significantly suppresses antiviral responses in vesicular stomatitis virus-infected cells. Compared to vehicle, administration of the c-Abl/Arg selective inhibitor AMN107 resulted in significantly increased mortality in mice infected with human influenza virus. Our study demonstrates that c-Abl plays an essential role in the STAT1 activation signaling pathway and provides an important approach for antiviral immunity regulation.Inheritance of chromatin-bound proteins theoretically plays a role in the epigenetic transmission of cellular phenotypes. Protein segregation during cell division is however poorly understood. We now describe TrIPP (Tracking the Inheritance Patterns of Proteins) a live cell imaging method for tracking maternal proteins during asymmetric cell divisions of budding yeast. Our analysis of the partitioning pattern of a test set of 18 chromatin-associated proteins reveals that abundant and moderately abundant maternal proteins segregate stochastically and symmetrically between the two cells with the exception of Rxt3p, Fpr4p, and Tup1p, which are preferentially retained in the mother. Low abundance proteins also tend to be retained in the mother cell with the exception of Sir2p and the linker histone H1. Our analysis of chromatin protein behavior in single cells reveals potentially general trends such as coupled protein synthesis and decay and a correlation between protein half-lives and cell-cycle duration.The transcriptome analysis of injured Xenopus laevis tadpole and mice suggested that Neurod4L.S., a basic-helix-loop-helix transcription factor, was the most promising transcription factor to exert neuroregeneration after spinal cord injury (SCI) in mammals. We generated a pseudotyped retroviral vector with the neurotropic lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) envelope to deliver murine Neurod4 to mice undergoing SCI. SCI induced ependymal cells to neural stem cells (NSCs) in the central canal. The LCMV envelope-based pseudotypedvector preferentially introduced Neurod4 into activated NSCs, which converted to neurons with axonal regrowth and suppressed the scar-forming glial lineage. Neurod4-induced inhibitory neurons predominantly projected to the subsynaptic domains of motor neurons at the epicenter, and Neurod4-induced excitatory neurons predominantly projected to subsynaptic domains of motor neurons caudal to the injury site suggesting the formation of functional synapses. Thus, Neurod4 is a potential therapeutic factor that can improve anatomical and functional recovery after SCI.