XY sex determination in a cnidarian.

Background: Sex determination occurs across animal species, but most of our knowledge about its mechanisms comes from only a handful of bilaterian taxa. This limits our ability to infer the evolutionary history of sex determination within animals.

Results: In this study, we generated a linkage map of the genome of the colonial cnidarian Hydractinia symbiolongicarpus and used it to demonstrate that this species has an XX/XY sex determination system.

Genotype first: Clinical genomics research through a reverse phenotyping approach.

Although genomic research has predominantly relied on phenotypic ascertainment of individuals affected with heritable disease, the falling costs of sequencing allow consideration of genomic ascertainment and reverse phenotyping (the ascertainment of individuals with specific genomic variants and subsequent evaluation of physical characteristics). In this research modality, the scientific question is inverted: investigators gather individuals with a genomic variant and test the hypothesis that there is an associated phenotype via targeted phenotypic evaluations. Genomic ascertainment research is thus a model of predictive genomic medicine and genomic screening.

HLA-associated outcomes in peanut oral immunotherapy trials identify mechanistic and clinical determinants of therapeutic success.

Rationale: Previous studies identified an interaction between HLA and oral peanut exposure. HLA-DQA1*01:02 had a protective role with the induction of Ara h 2 epitope-specific IgG4 associated with peanut consumption during the LEAP clinical trial for prevention of peanut allergy, while it was a risk allele for peanut allergy in the peanut avoidance group. We have now evaluated this gene-environment interaction in two subsequent peanut oral immunotherapy (OIT) trials - IMPACT and POISED - to better understand the potential for the HLA-DQA1*01:02 allele as an indicator of higher likelihood of desensitization, sustained unresponsiveness, and peanut allergy remission.

A Chromosome-Length Assembly of the Hawaiian Monk Seal (): A History of "Genetic Purging" and Genomic Stability.

The Hawaiian monk seal (HMS) is the single extant species of tropical earless seals of the genus The species survived a severe bottleneck in the late 19th century and experienced subsequent population declines until becoming the subject of a NOAA-led species recovery effort beginning in 1976 when the population was fewer than 1000 animals. Like other recovering species, the Hawaiian monk seal has been reported to have reduced genetic heterogeneity due to the bottleneck and subsequent inbreeding. Here, we report a chromosomal reference assembly for a male animal produced using a variety of methods.