Identification and characterization of a skin microbiome on suggests environmental microbes confer cuticle protection.

Unlabelled: In the wild, are emersed in environments teeming with a veritable menagerie of microorganisms. The cuticular surface serves as a barrier and first point of contact with their microbial environments. In this study, we identify microbes from natural habitats that associate with its cuticle, constituting a simple "skin microbiome.

Melting of generalized Wigner crystals in transition metal dichalcogenide heterobilayer Moiré systems.

Moiré superlattice systems such as transition metal dichalcogenide heterobilayers have garnered significant recent interest due to their promising utility as tunable solid state simulators. Recent experiments on a WSe/WS heterobilayer detected incompressible charge ordered states that one can view as generalized Wigner crystals. The tunability of the transition metal dichalcogenide heterobilayer Moiré system presents an opportunity to study the rich set of possible phases upon melting these charge-ordered states.

Harnessing interpretable and unsupervised machine learning to address big data from modern X-ray diffraction.

The information content of crystalline materials becomes astronomical when collective electronic behavior and their fluctuations are taken into account. In the past decade, improvements in source brightness and detector technology at modern X-ray facilities have allowed a dramatically increased fraction of this information to be captured. Now, the primary challenge is to understand and discover scientific principles from big datasets when a comprehensive analysis is beyond human reach.

Intestine-to-neuronal signaling alters risk-taking behaviors in food-deprived Caenorhabditis elegans.

Animals integrate changes in external and internal environments to generate behavior. While neural circuits detecting external cues have been mapped, less is known about how internal states like hunger are integrated into behavioral outputs. Here, we use the nematode C.

Microbial Mind Control.

Every animal is in constant communication with populations of microbes. In a recent study, O'Donnell and colleagues (2020) uncover an inter-domain conversation, defining a relationship in which a non-pathogenic microbe directly synthesizes a signal that alters host behavior for a mutually beneficial outcome.

One-component order parameter in URuSi uncovered by resonant ultrasound spectroscopy and machine learning.

The unusual correlated state that emerges in URuSi below = 17.5 K is known as "hidden order" because even basic characteristics of the order parameter, such as its dimensionality (whether it has one component or two), are "hidden." We use resonant ultrasound spectroscopy to measure the symmetry-resolved elastic anomalies across .

Epithelial delamination is protective during pharmaceutical-induced enteropathy.

Intestinal epithelial cell (IEC) shedding is a fundamental response to intestinal damage, yet underlying mechanisms and functions have been difficult to define. Here we model chronic intestinal damage in zebrafish larvae using the nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug (NSAID) Glafenine. Glafenine induced the unfolded protein response (UPR) and inflammatory pathways in IECs, leading to delamination.

Intestinal Serum amyloid A suppresses systemic neutrophil activation and bactericidal activity in response to microbiota colonization.

The intestinal microbiota influences the development and function of myeloid lineages such as neutrophils, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are unresolved. Using gnotobiotic zebrafish, we identified the immune effector Serum amyloid A (Saa) as one of the most highly induced transcripts in digestive tissues following microbiota colonization. Saa is a conserved secreted protein produced in the intestine and liver with described effects on neutrophils in vitro, however its in vivo functions remain poorly defined.

Potentiation of P2RX7 as a host-directed strategy for control of mycobacterial infection.

is the leading worldwide cause of death due to a single infectious agent. Existing anti-tuberculous therapies require long treatments and are complicated by multi-drug-resistant strains. Host-directed therapies have been proposed as an orthogonal approach, but few have moved into clinical trials.

An explant technique for high-resolution imaging and manipulation of mycobacterial granulomas.

A central and critical structure in tuberculosis, the mycobacterial granuloma consists of highly organized immune cells, including macrophages that drive granuloma formation through a characteristic epithelioid transformation. Difficulties in imaging within intact animals and caveats associated with in vitro assembly models have severely limited the study and experimental manipulation of mature granulomas. Here we describe a new ex vivo culture technique, wherein mature, fully organized zebrafish granulomas are microdissected and maintained in three-dimensional (3D) culture.

Infectious disease models in zebrafish.

In recent years, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) has developed as an important alternative to mammalian models for the study of hostpathogen interactions. Because they lack a functional adaptive immune response during the first 4-6weeks of development, zebrafish rely upon innate immune responses to protect against injuries and infections. During this early period of development, it is possible to isolate and study mechanisms of infection and inflammation arising from the innate immune response without the complications presented by the adaptive immune response.

Live Imaging of Host-Pathogen Interactions in Zebrafish Larvae.

Zebrafish larvae are a powerful platform for studying the innate immune response to infection. The small size and optical transparency of larval zebrafish allow for multiple subject, multidimensional, and longitudinal imaging experiments. This chapter describes protocols for infecting zebrafish larvae with their natural pathogen Mycobacterium marinum, rapid short-term imaging, long-term extended imaging, and drug treatment assays.

Direct In Vivo Manipulation and Imaging of Calcium Transients in Neutrophils Identify a Critical Role for Leading-Edge Calcium Flux.

Calcium signaling has long been associated with key events of immunity, including chemotaxis, phagocytosis, and activation. However, imaging and manipulation of calcium flux in motile immune cells in live animals remain challenging. Using light-sheet microscopy for in vivo calcium imaging in zebrafish, we observe characteristic patterns of calcium flux triggered by distinct events, including phagocytosis of pathogenic bacteria and migration of neutrophils toward inflammatory stimuli.

Adventures within the speckled band: heterogeneity, angiogenesis, and balanced inflammation in the tuberculous granuloma.

Recent work in a variety of animal models, including mice, zebrafish, and macaques, as well as in humans, has led to a reassessment of several tenets of mycobacterial infection. In this review, we describe new findings about the composition and dynamics of the tuberculous granuloma, the central host structure in mycobacterial infection, as well as inflammatory mediators that drive a successful anti-microbial response on one hand and pathological inflammation on the other. We highlight granuloma heterogeneity that emerges in the context of infection, the functional consequences of angiogenesis in tuberculous granulomas, and data that balanced inflammation in humans, with a central role for tumor necrosis factor, appears to play a key role in optimal defense against mycobacterial infection.

Comparison of severe life stress in depressed mothers and non-mothers: do children matter?

Given the high rates of maladjustment among children of depressed mothers, parenting is likely to cause significant life stress in this population, potentially worsening the course of mothers' depression. The present study is a comparison of severe life stress in 38 mothers and 62 non-mothers receiving treatment for recurrent major depression. Life stress was assessed using the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule [Brown and Harris, 1978a].

Assessment of life stress in adolescents: self-report versus interview methods.

Objective: To compare the investigator-based Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (LEDS) with a self-report measure (Life Events Checklist [LEC]) for the purpose of measuring life stress in adolescents with and without a diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD).

Method: Adolescents (aged 13-18 years) with a recent episode of MDD based on DSM-III-R (n = 35) and normal controls free of any Axis I lifetime psychiatric disorder (n = 35) were assessed using both the LEC and the LEDS.

Results: Both measures predicted membership in the depressed and nondepressed groups of adolescents.

Nature of life events and difficulties in depressed adolescents.

Objective: To examine the significance of acute life events and ongoing difficulties in adolescents with a recent major depressive disorder.

Method: Adolescents (aged 13-18 years) with a recent episode of major depressive disorder based on DSM-III-R (n = 26) and normal controls free of any Axis I lifetime psychiatric disorder (n = 15) were assessed using the investigator-based Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (LEDS).

Results: Traditionally defined severe events were more likely to occur in the year prior to onset among depressed adolescents (46%) than in a comparable period among normal controls (20%), but these differences did not reach statistical significance.

Sleep onset abnormalities in depressed adolescents.

Sleep measures were obtained in 16 depressed and 21 control adolescents following 1 week of adherence to a uniformly imposed and strictly enforced sleep/wake schedule. Three nights of baseline electroencephalographic (EEG) sleep on the same 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM schedule revealed prolonged sleep latency and reduced rapid eye movement (REM) latency in the depressed adolescents. Following baseline measures, sleep was restricted for 2 nights (10:00 PM-4:00 AM) and measures of recovery sleep were obtained showing further sleep latency differences.