Background/objectives: The colonization history of house mice reflects the maritime history of humans that passively transported them worldwide. We investigated western house mouse colonization in the Atlantic region through studies of mitochondrial D-loop DNA sequences from modern specimens.
Methods: We assembled a dataset of 758 haplotypes derived from 2765 mice from 47 countries/oceanic archipelagos (a combination of new and published data).
The house mouse (Mus musculus) is often thought of as a pest species in biological conservation, in agriculture, and in urban areas. As a result, populations are frequently targeted for control and eradication. However, M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMeiotic drive is the biased transmission of alleles from heterozygotes, contrary to Mendel's laws, and reflects intragenomic conflict rather than organism-level Darwinian selection. Theory has been developed as to how centromeric properties can promote female meiotic drive and how conflict between the X and Y chromosomes in males can promote male meiotic drive. There are empirical data that fit both the centromere drive and sex chromosome drive models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: KRAS and KRAS inhibitors represent a major translational breakthrough for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and cancer in general by directly targeting its most mutated oncoprotein. However, resistance to these small molecules has highlighted the need for rational combination partners necessitating a critical understanding of signaling downstream of KRAS mutant isoforms.
Methods: We contrasted tumor development between Kras and Kras genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs).
Ocular hypertension (OHT) caused by mechanical stress and chronic glucocorticoid exposure reduces the hydraulic permeability of the conventional outflow pathway. It increases the risk for irreversible vision loss, yet healthy individuals experience nightly intraocular pressure (IOP) elevations without adverse lifetime effects. It is not known which pressure sensors regulate physiological vs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenetic admixture introduces new variants at relatively high frequencies, potentially aiding rapid responses to environmental changes. Here, we evaluate its role in adaptive variation related to climatic conditions in bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) in Britain, using whole-genome data. Our results reveal loci showing excess ancestry from one of the two postglacial colonist populations inconsistent with overall admixture patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMarginal zone lymphoma (MZL) is a group of low-grade, indolent, non-Hodgkin lymphomas rarely manifesting in the lungs. A 46-year-old man presenting with shortness of breath and cough was investigated and treated over 10 months for an atypical pattern of lung disease in keeping with cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP). Initial lung biopsies were nondiagnostic - repeat sampling eventually showed MZL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLangerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare hematological disease, more common in pediatric populations. A 26-year-old man with biopsy-proven cutaneous LCH underwent 18 F-FDG PET/CT systemic staging. 18 F-FDG PET/CT highlighted multiple sites of avid cutaneous disease within the natal cleft.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCold Spring Harb Perspect Biol
March 2024
Research on the genomic architecture of speciation has increasingly revealed the importance of structural variants (SVs) that affect the presence, abundance, position, and/or direction of a nucleotide sequence. SVs include large chromosomal rearrangements such as fusion/fissions and inversions and translocations, as well as smaller variants such as duplications, insertions, and deletions (CNVs). Although we have ample evidence that SVs play a key role in speciation, the underlying mechanisms differ depending on the type and length of the SV, as well as the ecological, demographic, and historical context.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs climate change continues, species pushed outside their physiological tolerance limits must adapt or face extinction. When change is rapid, adaptation will largely harness ancestral variation, making the availability and characteristics of that variation of critical importance. Here, we used whole-genome sequencing and genetic-environment association analyses to identify adaptive variation and its significance in the context of future climates in a small Palearctic mammal, the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA case involving a 64-year-old woman with ovarian carcinoma on maintenance therapy who underwent 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography with computed tomography ([18F]FDG PET/CT) restaging due to rapid cancer antigen 125 (Ca-125) rise. This revealed recurrent disease within the pelvis and large volume, peritoneal carcinomatosis including an avid umbilical deposit, consistent with the rarely seen Sister Mary Joseph nodule (SMJN). This case elegantly demonstrates not only the anatomy of the peritoneal surfaces through avid disease deposition but also highlights the sensitive depiction of disease burden in peritoneal carcinomatosis, including the detection of rare manifestations such as SMJN.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Staging of oesophagogastric (OG) cancers usually involves endoscopy (OGD), and separate visits for contrast enhanced computed tomography (CeCT) and positron emission tomography (PET/CT). At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of our patients underwent single-visit combined staging with PET/CeCT. We compare this novel pathway with standard separate imaging in time to completion of staging, to start of treatment, and cost.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA species tree is a central concept in evolutionary biology whereby a single branching phylogeny reflects relationships among species. However, the phylogenies of different genomic regions often differ from the species tree. Although tree discordance is often widespread in phylogenomic studies, we still lack a clear understanding of how variation in phylogenetic patterns is shaped by genome biology or the extent to which discordance may compromise comparative studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCold Spring Harb Perspect Biol
November 2023
Chromosomal rearrangements (CRs) have been known since almost the beginning of genetics. While an important role for CRs in speciation has been suggested, evidence primarily stems from theoretical and empirical studies focusing on the microevolutionary level (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbstractBrood parasitism involves the exploitation of host parental care rather than the extraction of resources directly from hosts. We identify defining characteristics of this strategy and consider its position along continua with adjacent behaviors but focus on canonical brood parasites, where parasitism is obligate and hosts are noneusocial (thereby distinguishing from social parasitism). A systematic literature survey revealed 59 independently derived brood parasitic lineages with most origins (49) in insects, particularly among bees and wasps, and other origins in birds (seven) and fish (three).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCopper potentially provides a cost-effective replacement for silver in printed electronic circuitry with diverse applications in healthcare, solar energy, IOT devices and automotive applications. The primary challenge facing copper is that it readily oxidizes to its non-conductive state during the sintering process. Photonic sintering offers a means of overcoming the oxidation by which rapid conversion from discrete nano-micro particles to fully or partially sintered products occurs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe vertebrate photoperiodic neuroendocrine system uses the photoperiod as a proxy to time the annual rhythms in reproduction. The thyrotropin receptor (TSHR) is a key protein in the mammalian seasonal reproduction pathway. Its abundance and function can tune sensitivity to the photoperiod.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInvasive mammals are responsible for the majority of native species extinctions on islands. While most of these extinction events will be due to novel interactions between species (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMitochondrial introgression raises questions of biogeography and of the extent of reproductive isolation and natural selection. Previous phylogenetic work on the complex revealed apparent mitonuclear discordance in Iberian shrews, indicating past hybridisation of and the Carlit chromosomal race of , enabling introgression of the mitochondrial genome into To further study this, we genetically typed 61 from localities in Portugal, Spain, France, and Andorra at mitochondrial, autosomal, and sex-linked loci and combined our data with the previously published sequences. Our data are consistent with earlier data indicating that and are the most closely related of the three species, confirming that from the Central System mountain range in Spain captured the mitochondrial genome from a population of .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Western European house mouse is chromosomally diverse, with diploid karyotypes ranging from the standard 40 telocentric chromosomes down to 22 chromosomes. Karyotypes are modified through Robertsonian (Rb) fusion of 2 telocentrics into a single metacentric, occurring repeatedly with fixation, and whole-arm reciprocal translocations (WARTs) generating additional novel karyotypes. Over 100 metacentric populations (chromosomal races) have been identified, geographically clustered into "systems.
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