Cross-modal sensory compensation increases mosquito attraction to humans.

Sensory compensation occurs when loss of one sense leads to enhanced perception by another sense. We have identified a previously undescribed mechanism of sensory compensation in female mosquitoes. Odorant receptor co-receptor () mutants show enhanced attraction to human skin temperature and increased heat-evoked neuronal activity in foreleg sensory neurons.

Cas10 relieves host growth arrest to facilitate spacer retention during type III-A CRISPR-Cas immunity.

Cells from all kingdoms of life can enter growth arrest in unfavorable environmental conditions. Key to this process are mechanisms enabling recovery from this state. Staphylococcal type III-A CRISPR-Cas loci encode the Cas10 complex that uses a guide RNA to locate complementary viral transcripts and start an immune response.

The Cas10 nuclease activity relieves host dormancy to facilitate spacer acquisition and retention during type III-A CRISPR immunity.

A hallmark of CRISPR immunity is the acquisition of short viral DNA sequences, known as spacers, that are transcribed into guide RNAs to recognize complementary sequences. The staphylococcal type III-A CRISPR-Cas system uses guide RNAs to locate viral transcripts and start a response that displays two mechanisms of immunity. When immunity is triggered by an early-expressed phage RNA, degradation of viral ssDNA can cure the host from infection.