Identification of specific microbiota members that induce beige fat biogenesis in response to dietary cues.

Activation of brown and beige fat biogenesis promotes metabolic health in rodents and humans, but typically requires cold exposure or pharmacological activation of β-adrenergic receptors, which may pose cardiovascular risks. Dietary intervention represents a clinically viable alternative strategy to induce beige cells and thus enhance metabolic health, though the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. In this study, we identified specific microbiota members in both mice and humans that promote browning of white adipose tissue (WAT) and ameliorate metabolic disorders in the context of a low-protein diet (LPD).

A flexible cross-platform single-cell data processing pipeline.

Single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis to quantify the RNA molecules in individual cells has become popular, as it can obtain a large amount of information from each experiment. We introduce UniverSC ( https://github.com/minoda-lab/universc ), a universal single-cell RNA-seq data processing tool that supports any unique molecular identifier-based platform.

A Pro-Endocrine Pancreatic Islet Transcriptional Program Established During Development Is Retained in Human Gallbladder Epithelial Cells.

Background & Aims: Pancreatic islet β-cells are factories for insulin production; however, ectopic expression of insulin also is well recognized. The gallbladder is a next-door neighbor to the developing pancreas. Here, we wanted to understand if gallbladders contain functional insulin-producing cells.

Germline viral "fossils" guide in silico reconstruction of a mid-Cenozoic era marsupial adeno-associated virus.

Germline endogenous viral elements (EVEs) genetically preserve viral nucleotide sequences useful to the study of viral evolution, gene mutation, and the phylogenetic relationships among host organisms. Here, we describe a lineage-specific, adeno-associated virus (AAV)-derived endogenous viral element (mAAV-EVE1) found within the germline of numerous closely related marsupial species. Molecular screening of a marsupial DNA panel indicated that mAAV-EVE1 occurs specifically within the marsupial suborder Macropodiformes (present-day kangaroos, wallabies, and related macropodoids), to the exclusion of other Diprotodontian lineages.

Coherence analysis discriminates between retroviral integration patterns in CD34(+) cells transduced under differing clinical trial conditions.

Unequivocal demonstration of the therapeutic utility of γ-retroviral vectors for gene therapy applications targeting the hematopoietic system was accompanied by instances of insertional mutagenesis. These events stimulated the ongoing development of putatively safer integrating vector systems and analysis methods to characterize and compare integration site (IS) biosafety profiles. Continuing advances in next-generation sequencing technologies are driving the generation of ever-more complex IS datasets.

Modeling correction of severe urea cycle defects in the growing murine liver using a hybrid recombinant adeno-associated virus/piggyBac transposase gene delivery system.

Unlabelled: Liver-targeted gene therapy based on recombinant adeno-associated viral vectors (rAAV) shows promising therapeutic efficacy in animal models and adult-focused clinical trials. This promise, however, is not directly translatable to the growing liver, where high rates of hepatocellular proliferation are accompanied by loss of episomal rAAV genomes and subsequently a loss in therapeutic efficacy. We have developed a hybrid rAAV/piggyBac transposon vector system combining the highly efficient liver-targeting properties of rAAV with stable piggyBac-mediated transposition of the transgene into the hepatocyte genome.

A critical analysis of calcium carbonate mesocrystals.

The term mesocrystal has been widely used to describe crystals that form by oriented assembly, and that exhibit nanoparticle substructures. Using calcite crystals co-precipitated with polymers as a suitable test case, this article looks critically at the concept of mesocrystals. Here we demonstrate that the data commonly used to assign mesocrystal structure may be frequently misinterpreted, and that these calcite/polymer crystals do not have nanoparticle substructures.

Capillarity creates single-crystal calcite nanowires from amorphous calcium carbonate.

Single-crystal calcite nanowires are formed by crystallization of morphologically equivalent amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) particles within the pores of track etch membranes. The polyaspartic acid stabilized ACC is drawn into the membrane pores by capillary action, and the single-crystal nature of the nanowires is attributed to the limited contact of the intramembrane ACC particle with the bulk solution. The reaction environment then supports transformation to a single-crystal product.

Crystallization on surfaces of well-defined topography.

Single crystals of calcite with regular patterned surfaces comprising close-packed arrays of hemispherical cavities or domes were produced by crystallization on colloidal monolayers or PDMS replicas of these monolayers, respectively. Perfect replication of the substrate topography was achieved for all colloidal particles, irrespective of their size and surface chemistry when the substrate geometry permitted unrestricted ion flow to the growing crystal. This work demonstrates that crystallization within a mould provides a very general route to producing single crystals with curved surfaces and unusual morphologies and that such patterning can be applied from the micro- to the nanoscale.