Hologenome analysis reveals independent evolution to chemosymbiosis by deep-sea bivalves.

Background: Bivalves have independently evolved a variety of symbiotic relationships with chemosynthetic bacteria. These relationships range from endo- to extracellular interactions, making them ideal for studies on symbiosis-related evolution. It is still unclear whether there are universal patterns to symbiosis across bivalves.

Comparison of different sequencing strategies for assembling chromosome-level genomes of extremophiles with variable GC content.

In this study, six bacterial isolates with variable GC, including as mesophilic reference strain, were selected to compare hybrid assembly strategies based on next-generation sequencing (NGS) of short reads, single-tube long-fragment reads (stLFR) sequencing, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing platforms. We obtained the complete genomes using the hybrid assembler Unicycler based on the NGS and ONT reads; others were assembled using NGS, stLFR, and ONT reads by using different strategies. The contiguity, accuracy, completeness, sequencing costs, and DNA material requirements of the investigated strategies were compared systematically.

[Advances in mass spectrometry-based approaches for neuropeptide analysis].

Neuropeptides are an important class of endogenous bioactive substances involved in the function of the nervous system, and connect the brain and other neural and peripheral organs. Mass spectrometry-based neuropeptidomics are designed to study neuropeptides in a large-scale manner and obtain important molecular information to further understand the mechanism of nervous system regulation and the pathogenesis of neurological diseases. This review summarizes the basic strategies for the study of neuropeptides using mass spectrometry, including sample preparation and processing, qualitative and quantitative methods, and mass spectrometry imagining.