Importance: Health-related social needs are drivers of worse health and high health care spending. In North Carolina Medicaid's 1115 waiver, the Healthy Opportunities Pilots (HOP) program allows for nonmedical services to address health-related social needs, such as healthy food boxes and housing navigation, financed by Medicaid, in 3 regions of North Carolina.
Objective: To determine whether individual participation in the HOP program is associated with lower Medicaid spending.
UCYN-A (or Atelocyanobacterium thalassa) has been recognized as a globally distributed, early stage, nitrogen-fixing organelle (the "nitroplast") of cyanobacterial origin present in the haptophyte alga . Although the nitroplast was recognized as UCYN-A2, not all sublineages of UCYN-A have been confirmed as nitroplasts, and full genomes are still lacking for several known sublineages. We investigated the differences between UCYN-A sublineages by sequencing and assembly of metagenomic sequences acquired from cultured biomass from NW Atlantic seawater, which yielded near-complete Metagenome Assembled Genomes (MAGs) corresponding to UCYN-A1, -A4, and the plastid of the UCYN-A4-associated Weekly time-series data paired with the recurrence of specific microbes in cultures used for metagenomics gave further insight into the microbial community associated with the algal/UCYN-A complex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the origin of eukaryotic cells is one of the most difficult problems in all of biology. A key challenge relevant to the question of eukaryogenesis is reconstructing the gene repertoire of the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA). As data sets grow, sketching an accurate genomics-informed picture of early eukaryotic cellular complexity requires provision of analytical resources and a commitment to data sharing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSymbiotic relationships between eukaryotes and prokaryotes played pivotal roles in the evolution of life and drove the emergence of specialized symbiotic structures in animals, plants and fungi. The host-evolved symbiotic structures of microbial eukaryotes - the vast majority of such hosts in nature - remain largely unstudied. Here we describe highly structured symbiosomes within three free-living anaerobic protists (Anaeramoeba spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRegional variations in glutamate levels across the cingulate cortex, decreasing rostral to caudal, have been observed previously in healthy volunteers with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS) at 7 T. This study sought to explore cingulate cortex glutamate trends further by investigating whether a similar gradient could be detected at 3 T, the effect of sex, as well as whether individual variations gave rise to more than one regional glutamate pattern. H-MRS at 3 T [Phillips Elition; semi-localization by adiabatic selective refocusing, echo time (TE)/repetition time (TR) = 32/5,000] was acquired in four cingulate regions: the anterior, midanterior, midposterior, and posterior cortices, in 50 healthy participants (26 F) scanned at a fixed time of day and with controlled food intake.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe evolution of intracellular organelles by endosymbiosis is considered rare. Two recent studies suggest that endosymbioses between nitrogen-fixing bacteria and eukaryotic algae are approaching levels of integration comparable to cellular organelles, helping to solve the problem of oceanic nitrogen limitation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUCYN-A (Cand. Atelocyanobacterium thalassa) has recently been recognized as a globally-distributed, early stage, nitrogen-fixing organelle (the 'nitroplast') of cyanobacterial origin present in select species of haptophyte algae (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present the genome assembly of the pennate diatom strain UHM3201 (Ochrophyta; Bacillariophyceae; Rhopalodiales; Rhopalodiaceae) and that of its cyanobacterial endosymbiont (Chroococcales: Aphanothecaceae). The genome sequence of the diatom is 60.3 megabases in span, and the cyanobacterial genome has a length of 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMagnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) thermometry offers a noninvasive, localized method for estimating temperature by leveraging the temperature-dependent chemical shift of water relative to a temperature-stable reference metabolite under suitable calibration. Consequentially, this technique has significant potential as a tool for postmortem MR examinations in forensic medicine and pathology. In these examinations, the deceased are examined at a wide range of body temperatures, and MRS thermometry may be used for the temperature adjustment of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols or for corrections in the analysis of MRI or MRS data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany viruses inhibit general host gene expression to limit innate immune responses and gain preferential access to the cellular translational apparatus for their protein synthesis. This process is known as host shutoff. Influenza A viruses (IAVs) encode two host shutoff proteins: nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) and polymerase acidic X (PA-X).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSymbiosis is an old idea with a contentious history. New genomic technologies and research paradigms are fueling a shift in some of its central tenets; we need to be humble and open-minded about what the data are telling us.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInteins are self-splicing protein elements found in viruses and all three domains of life. How the DNA encoding these selfish elements spreads within and between genomes is poorly understood, particularly in eukaryotes where inteins are scarce. Here, we show that the nuclear genomes of three strains of encode between 45 and 103 inteins, in stark contrast to four found in the most intein-rich eukaryotic genome described previously.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpisodic future thinking (EFT) is the ability to subjectively pre-experience a specific future event. Future-oriented cognition in young children positively predicts physical health and financial status later in life. Can EFT be improved in children, even temporarily? Developmental research emphasizes the importance of thinking about one's own near future to enhance EFT, whereas research in adults suggests benefits reside in constructing a richly detailed event.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViruses are the most abundant biological entities in the world's oceans, where they play important ecological and biogeochemical roles. Metagenomics is revealing new groups of eukaryotic viruses, although disconnected from known hosts. Among these are the recently described mirusviruses, which share some similarities with herpesviruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThraustochytrids (phylum: Labyrinthulomycota) are nonphotosynthetic marine protists. Some thraustochytrids have crtIBY, a trifunctional fusion gene encoding a protein capable of β-carotene biosynthesis from geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate. Here we show that crtIBY is essential in, and encodes the sole pathway for, carotenoid biosynthesis in the thraustochytrid Aurantiochytrium limacinum ATCC MYA-1381.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe filamentous and unicellular algae of the class Zygnematophyceae are the closest algal relatives of land plants. Inferring the properties of the last common ancestor shared by these algae and land plants allows us to identify decisive traits that enabled the conquest of land by plants. We sequenced four genomes of filamentous Zygnematophyceae (three strains of and one strain of ) and generated chromosome-scale assemblies for all strains of the emerging model system .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cryptophytes are ecologically important algae of interest to evolutionary cell biologists because of the convoluted history of their plastids and nucleomorphs, which are derived from red algal secondary endosymbionts. To better understand the evolution of the cryptophyte nucleomorph, we sequenced nucleomorph genomes from two photosynthetic and two non-photosynthetic species in the genus Cryptomonas. We performed a comparative analysis of these four genomes and the previously published genome of the non-photosynthetic species Cryptomonas paramecium CCAP977/2a.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo better characterize central modulation mechanisms involved in the processing of daily repetitive painful stimulation, laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) were recorded at and away from the conditioning area in healthy participants. In addition, we aimed to evaluate a repetitive painful stimulation paradigm that could be conducted in a shorter time frame than previous studies. Collectively, continuous pain rating, warm and heat pain threshold results suggest that sensitivity to pain was reduced 24 h after the shortened repeated painful stimulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe unicellular amoeba is ubiquitous in aquatic environments, where it preys on bacteria. The organism also hosts bacterial endosymbionts, some of which are parasitic, including human pathogens such as and spp. Here we report complete, high-quality genome sequences for two extensively studied strains, Neff and C3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe evolution of streptophytes had a profound impact on life on Earth. They brought forth those photosynthetic eukaryotes that today dominate the macroscopic flora: the land plants (Embryophyta). There is convincing evidence that the unicellular/filamentous Zygnematophyceae-and not the morphologically more elaborate Coleochaetophyceae or Charophyceae-are the closest algal relatives of land plants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Raphidophyceae is an ecologically important eukaryotic lineage of primary producers and predators that inhabit marine and freshwater environments worldwide. These organisms are of great evolutionary interest because their plastids are the product of eukaryote-eukaryote endosymbiosis. To obtain deeper insight into the evolutionary history of raphidophycean plastids, we sequenced and analyzed the plastid genomes of three freshwater and three marine species.
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