No evidence for phenotypic condition-dependent ejaculate allocation in response to sperm competition in a seed beetle.

Sperm competition is known to favor the evolution of male traits that confer an advantage in gaining fertilizations when females mate multiply. Ejaculate production can be costly and the strategic allocation of sperm in relation to the sperm competition environment is a taxonomically widespread phenomenon. However, variation among males in their ability to adjust ejaculate allocation has rarely been explored.

Towards green, scalable peptide synthesis: leveraging DEG-crosslinked polystyrene resins to overcome hydrophobicity challenges.

Diethylene glycol dimethacrylate (DEG)-crosslinked polystyrene (PS) resin offers a promising alternative to traditional divinyl benzene (DVB)-PS resin for solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS), particularly for challenging sequences with hydrophobic or bulky amino acids. DEG-PS resin's reduced hydrophobicity and enhanced flexibility improve synthesis efficiency, yielding peptides up to 28 residues with higher purities and yields compared to DVB-PS. In various syntheses, DEG-PS outperformed DVB-PS resin, with higher purities and yields for challenging peptides such as ABC analogue (73.

Seasonal Variation in Birth Rates: Physiology versus Family Planning.

Seasonal variation in birth rates is a ubiquitous property of human populations. Although the general birth rate is dependent on relatively few parameters-sexual behavior, zygote survival, and the number of ova released-the quantitative influence of the effects of each is difficult to estimate. Research has been directed more towards seasonal variation in physiology and less towards behavioral effects such as preferences for birthing in particular seasons.

Access of Low-Resource Areas to ASCO Quality Initiatives: Initial Experience and Lessons Learned.

With the aim of improving the quality of cancer care globally, ASCO began to offer its quality improvement programs to interested international oncology practices. In this manuscript, we describe the experiences with ASCO quality initiatives in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The experience acquired from different practices in Latin America and Africa was reviewed and various action steps were summarized.

No evidence for an up-regulation of female immune function in response to elevated risk of sexual conflict.

Sexual conflict is widespread among sexually reproducing organisms. Phenotypic plasticity in female resistance traits has the potential to moderate the harm imposed by males during mating, yet female plasticity has rarely been explored. In this experiment, we investigated whether female seed beetles invest more in immunocompetence, measured as phenoloxidase (PO) capacity, when exposed to cues signalling a greater risk of sexual conflict.

Modulation of α-synuclein in vitro aggregation kinetics by its alternative splice isoforms.

The misfolding and aggregation of α-synuclein is linked to a family of neurodegenerative disorders known as synucleinopathies, the most prominent of which is Parkinson's disease (PD). Understanding the aggregation process of α-synuclein from a mechanistic point of view is thus of key importance. , the gene encoding α-synuclein, comprises six exons and produces various isoforms through alternative splicing.

The locus controls glycogen aggregation in astrocytes of the aged hippocampus without impacting cognitive function.

In aged humans and mice, aggregates of hypobranched glycogen molecules called polyglucosan bodies (PGBs) accumulate in hippocampal astrocytes. PGBs are known to drive cognitive decline in neurological diseases but remain largely unstudied in the context of typical brain aging. Here, we show that PGBs arise in autophagy-dysregulated astrocytes of the aged C57BL/6J mouse hippocampus.

Development, Feasibility, and Acceptability of an Oncologist Group Peer Support Program From ASCO's Clinician Well-Being Task Force.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has had deleterious effects on oncologist professional and personal well-being, the optimal delivery of quality cancer care, and the future cancer care workforce, with many departing the field. Hence, the identification of evidence-based approaches to sustain oncologists is essential to promote well-being.

Materials And Methods: We developed a brief, oncologist-centered, virtual group peer support program and tested its feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary impact on well-being.

Outcomes after application of halothoracic orthosis for cervical spine trauma.

Background: Cervical spine fractures can be managed operatively or nonoperatively, considering injury type and patient factors. Nonoperative management may include application of a halothoracic orthosis (HTO). The aim of our study was to describe our patients managed with HTO, review their 6-month and 12-month outcomes, and identify associated factors.

The Roc domain of LRRK2 as a hub for protein-protein interactions: a focus on PAK6 and its impact on RAB phosphorylation.

Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) has taken center stage in Parkinson's disease (PD) research as mutations cause familial PD and more common variants increase lifetime risk for disease. One unique feature in LRRK2 is the coexistence of GTPase/Roc (Ras of complex) and kinase catalytic functions, bridged by a COR (C-terminal Of Roc) platform for dimerization. Multiple PD mutations are located within the Roc/GTPase domain and concomitantly lead to defective GTPase activity and augmented kinase activity in cells, supporting a crosstalk between GTPase and kinase domains.

Evolution: Natural selection, sexual selection, and the jaws of death.

Traits that increase reproductive success in males can have negative fitness consequences in females. A new study shows that natural selection by a predator that targets males with larger secondary sexual traits drives an evolutionary increase in female fitness.

Kin-mediated plasticity in alternative reproductive tactics.

Conditional strategies occur when the relative fitness pay-off from expressing a given phenotype is contingent upon environmental circumstances. This conditional strategy model underlies cases of alternative reproductive tactics, in which individuals of one sex employ different means to obtain reproduction. How kin structure affects the expression of alternative reproductive tactics remains unexplored.

Implementing a Mind-Body Skills Group in Psychiatric Residency Training.

Objective: The burnout crisis in healthcare has led to interventions promoting resiliency and wellness among residents. One such intervention is a 10-week Mind-Body Skills Group including didactics and experiential exercises, self-expression, and small-group support. A Mind-Body Skills Group for residents and fellows in the University of Arizona-Tucson Department of Psychiatry aimed to teach skills for self-care and patient care.

Quantifying variation in female internal genitalia: no evidence for plasticity in response to sexual conflict risk in a seed beetle.

Sexually antagonistic coevolution can drive the evolution of male traits that harm females, and female resistance to those traits. While males have been found to vary their harmfulness to females in response to social cues, plasticity in female resistance traits remains to be examined. Here, we ask whether female seed beetles are capable of adjusting their resistance to male harm in response to the social environment.

Integrating protein networks and machine learning for disease stratification in the Hereditary Spastic Paraplegias.

The Hereditary Spastic Paraplegias are a group of neurodegenerative diseases characterized by spasticity and weakness in the lower body. Owing to the combination of genetic diversity and variable clinical presentation, the Hereditary Spastic Paraplegias are a strong candidate for protein-protein interaction network analysis as a tool to understand disease mechanism(s) and to aid functional stratification of phenotypes. In this study, experimentally validated human data were used to create a protein-protein interaction network based on the causative genes.

Advances in protein-protein interaction network analysis for Parkinson's disease.

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are a key component of the subcellular molecular networks which enable cells to function. Due to their importance in homeostasis, alterations to the networks can be detrimental, leading to cellular dysfunction and ultimately disease states. Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative condition with multifactorial aetiology, spanning genetic variation and environmental modifiers.

Genomewide Association Studies of LRRK2 Modifiers of Parkinson's Disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to search for genes/variants that modify the effect of LRRK2 mutations in terms of penetrance and age-at-onset of Parkinson's disease.

Methods: We performed the first genomewide association study of penetrance and age-at-onset of Parkinson's disease in LRRK2 mutation carriers (776 cases and 1,103 non-cases at their last evaluation). Cox proportional hazard models and linear mixed models were used to identify modifiers of penetrance and age-at-onset of LRRK2 mutations, respectively.

How sperm competition shapes the evolution of testes and sperm: a meta-analysis.

Females of many species mate with multiple males, thereby inciting competition among ejaculates from rival males for fertilization. In response to increasing sperm competition, males are predicted to enhance their investment in sperm production. This prediction is so widespread that testes size (correcting for body size) is commonly used as a proxy of sperm competition, even in the absence of any other information about a species' reproductive behaviour.

Genome-wide SNPs detect no evidence of genetic population structure for reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) in southern Mozambique.

Little is known about the extent of genetic connectivity along continuous coastlines in manta rays, or whether site visitation is influenced by relatedness. Such information is pertinent to defining population boundaries and understanding localized dispersal patterns and behaviour. Here, we use 3057 genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to evaluate population genetic structure and assess the levels of relatedness at aggregation sites of reef manta rays (Mobula alfredi) in southern Mozambique (n = 114).

Males adjust their manipulation of female remating in response to sperm competition risk.

To reduce the potential for sperm competition, male insects are thought to inhibit the post-mating reproductive behaviour of females through receptivity-inhibiting compounds transferred in the ejaculate. Selection is expected to favour phenotypic plasticity in male post-copulatory expenditure, with males investing strategically in response to their perceived risk of sperm competition. However, the impact that socially cued strategic allocation might have on female post-mating behaviour has rarely been assessed.

PINOT: an intuitive resource for integrating protein-protein interactions.

Background: The past decade has seen the rise of omics data for the understanding of biological systems in health and disease. This wealth of information includes protein-protein interaction (PPI) data derived from both low- and high-throughput assays, which are curated into multiple databases that capture the extent of available information from the peer-reviewed literature. Although these curation efforts are extremely useful, reliably downloading and integrating PPI data from the variety of available repositories is challenging and time consuming.

An age-dependent ovulatory strategy explains the evolution of dizygotic twinning in humans.

Dizygotic twinning, the simultaneous birth of siblings when multiple ova are released, is an evolutionary paradox. Twin-bearing mothers often have elevated fitness, but despite twinning being heritable, twin births occur only at low frequencies in human populations. We resolve this paradox by showing that twinning and non-twinning are not competing strategies; instead, dizygotic twinning is the outcome of an adaptive conditional ovulatory strategy of switching from single to double ovulation with increasing age.