Regulatory Changes in the Fatty Acid Elongase Underlie the Evolution of Sex-specific Pheromone Profiles in .

Pheromones play a key role in regulating sexual behavior throughout the animal kingdom. In and other insects, many cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) are sexually dimorphic, and some are known to perform pheromonal functions. However, the genetic control of sex-specific CHC production is not understood outside of the model species .

Health Insurance Coverage Projections For The US Population And Sources Of Coverage, By Age, 2024-34.

In the Congressional Budget Office's projections of health insurance coverage, 92.3 percent of the US population, or 316 million people, have coverage in 2024, and 7.7 percent, or 26 million, are uninsured.

Decoupled evolution of the gene family and in Drosophilidae.

Across internally fertilising species, males transfer ejaculate proteins that trigger wide-ranging changes in female behaviour and physiology. Much theory has been developed to explore the drivers of ejaculate protein evolution. The accelerating availability of high-quality genomes now allows us to test how these proteins are evolving at fine taxonomic scales.

Decoupled evolution of the gene family and in .

Across internally fertilising species, males transfer ejaculate proteins that trigger wide-ranging changes in female behaviour and physiology. Much theory has been developed to explore the drivers of ejaculate protein evolution. The accelerating availability of high-quality genomes now allows us to test how these proteins are evolving at fine taxonomic scales.

A single-cell atlas of the sexually dimorphic Drosophila foreleg and its sensory organs during development.

To respond to the world around them, animals rely on the input of a network of sensory organs distributed throughout the body. Distinct classes of sensory organs are specialized for the detection of specific stimuli such as strain, pressure, or taste. The features that underlie this specialization relate both to the neurons that innervate sensory organs and the accessory cells they comprise.

The evolution of sex peptide: sexual conflict, cooperation, and coevolution.

A central paradigm in evolutionary biology is that the fundamental divergence in the fitness interests of the sexes ('sexual conflict') can lead to both the evolution of sex-specific traits that reduce fitness for individuals of the opposite sex, and sexually antagonistic coevolution between the sexes. However, clear examples of traits that evolved in this way - where a single trait in one sex demonstrably depresses the fitness of members of the opposite sex, resulting in antagonistic coevolution - are rare. The Drosophila seminal protein 'sex peptide' (SP) is perhaps the most widely cited example of a trait that appears to harm females while benefitting males.

Evolution of sexual development and sexual dimorphism in insects.

Most animal species consist of two distinct sexes. At the morphological, physiological, and behavioral levels the differences between males and females are numerous and dramatic, yet at the genomic level they are often slight or absent. This disconnect is overcome because simple genetic differences or environmental signals are able to direct the sex-specific expression of a shared genome.

Sex Peptide controls the assembly of lipid microcarriers in seminal fluid.

Seminal fluid plays an essential role in promoting male reproductive success and modulating female physiology and behavior. In the fruit fly, , Sex Peptide (SP) is the best-characterized protein mediator of these effects. It is secreted from the paired male accessory glands (AGs), which, like the mammalian prostate and seminal vesicles, generate most of the seminal fluid contents.

Male reproductive aging arises via multifaceted mating-dependent sperm and seminal proteome declines, but is postponable in .

Declining ejaculate performance with male age is taxonomically widespread and has broad fitness consequences. Ejaculate success requires fully functional germline (sperm) and soma (seminal fluid) components. However, some aging theories predict that resources should be preferentially diverted to the germline at the expense of the soma, suggesting differential impacts of aging on sperm and seminal fluid and trade-offs between them or, more broadly, between reproduction and lifespan.

Structural variation in spermathecal ducts and its association with sperm competition dynamics.

The ability of female insects to retain and use sperm for days, months, or even years after mating requires specialized storage organs in the reproductive tract. In most orders, these organs include a pair of sclerotized capsules known as spermathecae. Here, we report that some females exhibit previously uncharacterized structures within the distal portion of the muscular duct that links a spermatheca to the uterus.

BMP signaling inhibition in secondary cells remodels the seminal proteome and self and rival ejaculate functions.

Seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) exert potent effects on male and female fitness. Rapidly evolving and molecularly diverse, they derive from multiple male secretory cells and tissues. In , most SFPs are produced in the accessory glands, which are composed of ∼1,000 fertility-enhancing "main cells" and ∼40 more functionally cryptic "secondary cells.

Divergent allocation of sperm and the seminal proteome along a competition gradient in .

Sperm competition favors large, costly ejaculates, and theory predicts the evolution of allocation strategies that enable males to plastically tailor ejaculate expenditure to sperm competition threat. While greater sperm transfer in response to a perceived increase in the risk of sperm competition is well-supported, we have a poor understanding of whether males () respond to changes in perceived intensity of sperm competition, () use the same allocation rules for sperm and seminal fluid, and () experience changes in current and future reproductive performance as a result of ejaculate compositional changes. Combining quantitative proteomics with fluorescent sperm labeling, we show that males exercise independent control over the transfer of sperm and seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) under different levels of male-male competition.

A Systematic Review of Complications Following Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery Including Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion.

Purpose Of Review: To assess complications after minimally invasive spinal surgeries including transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MI-TLIF) by reviewing the most recent literature.

Recent Findings: Current literature demonstrates that minimally invasive surgery (MIS) in spine has improved clinical outcomes and reduced complications when compared with open spinal procedures. Recent studies describing MI-TLIF primarily for degenerative disk disease, spondylolisthesis, and vertebral canal stenosis cite over 89 discrete complications, with the most common being radiculitis (ranging from 2.

Quantitative Proteomics Identification of Seminal Fluid Proteins in Male .

Seminal fluid contains some of the fastest evolving proteins currently known. These seminal fluid proteins (Sfps) play crucial roles in reproduction, such as supporting sperm function, and particularly in insects, modifying female physiology and behavior. Identification of Sfps in small animals is challenging, and often relies on samples taken from the female reproductive tract after mating.

Seminal fluid.

Seminal fluid does more than transport sperm. Hopkins et al., describe the diverse features and functions of seminal fluid, and its role in evolution and medicine.

Multifold Enhancement of Third-Harmonic Generation in Dielectric Nanoparticles Driven by Magnetic Fano Resonances.

Strong Mie-type magnetic dipole resonances in all-dielectric nanostructures provide novel opportunities for enhancing nonlinear effects at the nanoscale due to the intense electric and magnetic fields trapped within the individual nanoparticles. Here we study third-harmonic generation from quadrumers of silicon nanodisks supporting high-quality collective modes associated with the magnetic Fano resonance. We observe nontrivial wavelength and angular dependencies of the generated harmonic signal featuring a multifold enhancement of the nonlinear response in oligomeric systems.

Polarisation-independent enhanced scattering by tailoring asymmetric plasmonic systems.

Polarised light provides an efficient way for dynamic control over local optical properties of nanoscale plasmonic structures. Yet many applications that utilise control over the plasmonic near-field would benefit if the plasmonic device maintained the same magnitude of optical response for all polarisations. Here we show that completely asymmetric nanostructures can be designed to exhibit a broadband polarisation-independent and enhanced optical response.

Hunk/Mak-v is a negative regulator of intestinal cell proliferation.

Background: Conditional deletion of the tumour suppressor gene Apc within the murine intestine results in acute Wnt signalling activation. The associated over-expression of a myriad of Wnt signalling target genes yields phenotypic alterations that encompass many of the hallmarks of neoplasia. Previous transcriptomic analysis aimed at identifying genes that potentially play an important role in this process, inferred the Hormonally upregulated Neu-associated kinase (HUNK/Mak-v/Bstk1) gene as a possible candidate.

Enhanced third-harmonic generation in silicon nanoparticles driven by magnetic response.

We observe enhanced third-harmonic generation from silicon nanodisks exhibiting both electric and magnetic dipolar resonances. Experimental characterization of the nonlinear optical response through third-harmonic microscopy and spectroscopy reveals that the third-harmonic generation is significantly enhanced in the vicinity of the magnetic dipole resonances. The field localization at the magnetic resonance results in two orders of magnitude enhancement of the harmonic intensity with respect to unstructured bulk silicon with the conversion efficiency limited only by the two-photon absorption in the substrate.

Observation of Fano resonances in all-dielectric nanoparticle oligomers.

It is well-known that oligomers made of metallic nanoparticles are able to support sharp Fano resonances originating from the interference of two plasmonic resonant modes with different spectral width. While such plasmonic oligomers suffer from high dissipative losses, a new route for achieving Fano resonances in nanoparticle oligomers has opened up after the recent experimental observations of electric and magnetic resonances in low-loss dielectric nanoparticles. Here, light scattering by all-dielectric oligomers composed of silicon nanoparticles is studied experimentally for the first time.

Plasmonic nanoclusters with rotational symmetry: polarization-invariant far-field response vs changing near-field distribution.

Flexible control over the near- and far-field properties of plasmonic nanostructures is important for many potential applications, such as surface-enhanced Raman scattering and biosensing. Generally, any change in the polarization of the incident light leads to a change in the nanoparticle's near-field distribution and, consequently, in its far-field properties as well. Therefore, producing polarization-invariant optical responses in the far field from a changing near field remains a challenging issue.

Optically isotropic responses induced by discrete rotational symmetry of nanoparticle clusters.

Fostered by the recent progress of the fields of plasmonics and metamaterials, the seminal topic of light scattering by clusters of nanoparticles is attracting enormous renewed interest gaining more attention than ever before. Related studies have not only found various new applications in different branches of physics and chemistry, but also spread rapidly into other fields such as biology and medicine. Despite the significant achievements, there still exists unsolved but vitally important challenges of how to obtain robust polarisation-invariant responses of different types of scattering systems.

Survival factor NFIL3 restricts FOXO-induced gene expression in cancer.

Depending on the circumstance, FOXO (Forkhead O) (FOXO1, FOXO3, and FOXO4) transcription factors activate the expression of markedly different sets of genes to produce different phenotypic effects. For example, distinct FOXO-regulated transcriptional programs stimulate cell death or enhance organism life span. To gain insight into how FOXOs select specific genes for regulation, we performed a screen for genes that modify FOXO activation of TRAIL, a death receptor ligand capable of inducing extrinsic apoptosis.

The P. furiosus mre11/rad50 complex promotes 5' strand resection at a DNA double-strand break.

The Mre11/Rad50 complex has been implicated in the early steps of DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair through homologous recombination in several organisms. However, the enzymatic properties of this complex are incompatible with the generation of 3' single-stranded DNA for recombinase loading and strand exchange. In thermophilic archaea, the Mre11 and Rad50 genes cluster in an operon with genes encoding a helicase, HerA, and a 5' to 3' exonuclease, NurA, suggesting a common function.