impacts microbiome diversity and fitness-associated traits for in a seasonally fluctuating environment.

The microbiome contributes to many different host traits, but its role in host adaptation remains enigmatic. The fitness benefits of the microbiome often depend on ecological conditions, but theory suggests that fluctuations in both the microbiome and environment modulate these fitness benefits. Moreover, vertically transmitted bacteria might constrain the ability of both the microbiome and host to respond to changing environments.

From GWAS to signal validation: An approach for estimating genetic effects while preserving genomic context.

Validating associations between genotypic and phenotypic variation remains a challenge, despite advancements in association studies. Common approaches for signal validation rely on gene-level perturbations, such as loss-of-function mutations or RNAi, which test the effect of genetic modifications usually not observed in nature. CRISPR-based methods can validate associations at the SNP level, but have significant drawbacks, including resulting off-target effects and being both time-consuming and expensive.

Socioeconomic status effects on health vary between rural and urban Turkana.

Background And Objectives: Understanding the social determinants of health is a major goal in evolutionary biology and human health research. Low socioeconomic status (often operationalized as absolute material wealth) is consistently associated with chronic stress, poor health and premature death in high-income countries. However, the degree to which wealth gradients in health are universal-or are instead made even steeper under contemporary, post-industrial conditions-remains poorly understood.

DNA/RNA methyltransferase contributes to robust host defense in aging animals by regulating sphingolipid metabolism.

methyltransferase () has been implicated in the methylation of both DNA and tRNA. In this study, we demonstrate that loss of activity leads to an age-dependent decline of immune function in the adult fly. A newly eclosed adult has mild immune defects that are exacerbated in a 15 day old fly.

Presence of DNA methyltransferase activity and CpC methylation in Drosophila melanogaster.

Drosophila melanogaster lacks DNMT1/DNMT3 based methylation machinery. Despite recent reports confirming the presence of low DNA methylation in Drosophila; little is known about the methyltransferase. Therefore, in this study, we have aimed to investigate the possible functioning of DNA methyltransferase in Drosophila.