An updated reference genome sequence and annotation reveals gene losses and gains underlying naked mole-rat biology.

The naked mole-rat (NMR; ) is a eusocial subterranean rodent with a highly unusual set of physiological traits that has attracted great interest amongst the scientific community. However, the genetic basis of most of these traits has not been elucidated. To facilitate our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying NMR physiology and behaviour, we generated a long-read chromosomal-level genome assembly of the NMR.

Age, sex, and cell type-resolved hypothalamic gene expression across the pubertal transition in mice.

Background: The hypothalamus plays a central role in regulating puberty. However, our knowledge of the postnatal gene regulatory networks that control the pubertal transition in males and females is incomplete. Here, we investigate the age-, sex- and cell-type-specific gene regulation in the hypothalamus across the pubertal transition.

Decreased left heart flow in fetal lambs causes left heart hypoplasia and pro-fibrotic tissue remodeling.

Low blood flow through the fetal left heart is often conjectured as an etiology for hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). To investigate if a decrease in left heart flow results in growth failure, we generate left ventricular inflow obstruction (LVIO) in mid-gestation fetal lambs by implanting coils in their left atrium using an ultrasound-guided percutaneous technique. Significant LVIO recapitulates important clinical features of HLHS: decreased antegrade aortic valve flow, compensatory retrograde perfusion of the brain and ascending aorta (AAo) from the arterial duct, severe left heart hypoplasia, a non-apex forming LV, and a thickened endocardial layer.

Transcriptomic effects of the foraging gene shed light on pathways of pleiotropy and plasticity.

Genes are often pleiotropic and plastic in their expression, features which increase and diversify the functionality of the genome. The foraging (for) gene in Drosophila melanogaster is highly pleiotropic and a long-standing model for studying individual differences in behavior and plasticity from ethological, evolutionary, and genetic perspectives. Its pleiotropy is known to be linked to its complex molecular structure; however, the downstream pathways and interactors remain mostly elusive.

Differential Expression Enrichment Tool (DEET): an interactive atlas of human differential gene expression.

Differential gene expression analysis using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) data is a standard approach for making biological discoveries. Ongoing large-scale efforts to process and normalize publicly available gene expression data enable rapid and systematic reanalysis. While several powerful tools systematically process RNA-seq data, enabling their reanalysis, few resources systematically recompute differentially expressed genes (DEGs) generated from individual studies.

Women in science: a son's perspective.

I am often asked how our mother inspired my sister Moriah and me to want to become scientists. She never directly suggested we should go down that path. Instead, she shared the aspects of the natural world, that she loved, with us while keeping the non-science aspects of her job separate from our lives at home.

Single-cell mapper (scMappR): using scRNA-seq to infer the cell-type specificities of differentially expressed genes.

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is widely used to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and reveal biological mechanisms underlying complex biological processes. RNA-seq is often performed on heterogeneous samples and the resulting DEGs do not necessarily indicate the cell-types where the differential expression occurred. While single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) methods solve this problem, technical and cost constraints currently limit its widespread use.

The Drosophila gene human orthologue predicts individual differences in the effects of early adversity on maternal sensitivity.

There is variation in the extent to which childhood adverse experience affects adult individual differences in maternal behavior. Genetic variation in the animal gene, which encodes a cGMP-dependent protein kinase, contributes to variation in the responses of adult fruit flies, , to early life adversity and is also known to play a role in maternal behavior in social insects. Here we investigate genetic variation in the human foraging gene () as a predictor of individual differences in the effects of early adversity on maternal behavior in two cohorts.