Rapid turnover and evolution of sex-determining regions in Sebastes rockfishes.

Nature has evolved a wealth of sex determination (SD) mechanisms, driven by both genetic and environmental factors. Recent studies of SD in fishes have shown that not all taxa fit the classic paradigm of sex chromosome evolution and diverse SD methods can be found even among closely related species. Here, we apply a suite of genomic approaches to investigate sex-biased genomic variation in eight species of Sebastes rockfish found in the northeast Pacific Ocean.

The third international hackathon for applying insights into large-scale genomic composition to use cases in a wide range of organisms.

In October 2021, 59 scientists from 14 countries and 13 U.S. states collaborated virtually in the Third Annual Baylor College of Medicine & DNANexus Structural Variation hackathon.

Gene Expression Signatures of Contact Lens-Induced Myopia in Guinea Pig Retinal Pigment Epithelium.

Purpose: To identify key retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) genes linked to the induction of myopia in guinea pigs.

Methods: To induce myopia, two-week-old pigmented guinea pigs (New Zealand strain, n = 5) wore -10 diopter (D) rigid gas-permeable contact lenses (CLs), for one day; fellow eyes were left without CLs and served as controls. Spherical equivalent refractive errors (SE) and axial length (AL) were measured at baseline and one day after initiation of CL wear.

Origins and evolution of extreme life span in Pacific Ocean rockfishes.

Pacific Ocean rockfishes (genus ) exhibit extreme variation in life span, with some species being among the most long-lived extant vertebrates. We de novo assembled the genomes of 88 rockfish species and from these identified repeated signatures of positive selection in DNA repair pathways in long-lived taxa and 137 longevity-associated genes with direct effects on life span through insulin signaling and with pleiotropic effects through size and environmental adaptations. A genome-wide screen of structural variation reveals copy number expansions in the immune modulatory butyrophilin gene family in long-lived species.

Elephant seal muscle cells adapt to sustained glucocorticoid exposure by shifting their metabolic phenotype.

Elephant seals experience natural periods of prolonged food deprivation while breeding, molting, and undergoing postnatal development. Prolonged food deprivation in elephant seals increases circulating glucocorticoids without inducing muscle atrophy, but the cellular mechanisms that allow elephant seals to cope with such conditions remain elusive. We generated a cellular model and conducted transcriptomic, metabolic, and morphological analyses to study how seal cells adapt to sustained glucocorticoid exposure.

Accelerated Evolution of Tissue-Specific Genes Mediates Divergence Amidst Gene Flow in European Green Lizards.

The European green lizards of the Lacerta viridis complex consist of two closely related species, L. viridis and Lacerta bilineata that split less than 7 million years ago in the presence of gene flow. Recently, a third lineage, referred to as the "Adriatic" was described within the L.

Prioritizing long range interactions in noncoding regions using GWAS and deletions perturbed TADs.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have contributed significantly to predisposing the disease etiology by associating single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with complex diseases. However, most GWAS-SNPs are in the noncoding regions that may affect distal genes via long range enhancer-promoter interactions. Thus, the common practice on GWAS discoveries cannot fully reveal the molecular mechanisms underpinning complex diseases.

A crowdsourced set of curated structural variants for the human genome.

A high quality benchmark for small variants encompassing 88 to 90% of the reference genome has been developed for seven Genome in a Bottle (GIAB) reference samples. However a reliable benchmark for large indels and structural variants (SVs) is more challenging. In this study, we manually curated 1235 SVs, which can ultimately be used to evaluate SV callers or train machine learning models.

Identification of potential therapeutic targets in Neisseria gonorrhoeae by an in-silico approach.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a gram negative diplococcus bacterium and the causative agent of the sexually transmitted disease Gonorrhea. It has been recently given the status of "superbug" by World Health Organization because of the increasing antibiotic resistance and unavailability of a viable vaccine candidate. Over recent years, there have been increasing reports about the use of subtractive genomics to identify potential drug and vaccine targets.

Divergent evolution in the genomes of closely related lacertids, Lacerta viridis and L. bilineata, and implications for speciation.

Background: Lacerta viridis and Lacerta bilineata are sister species of European green lizards (eastern and western clades, respectively) that, until recently, were grouped together as the L. viridis complex. Genetic incompatibilities were observed between lacertid populations through crossing experiments, which led to the delineation of two separate species within the L.