Establishment of a Standard Tongue Coating Collection Method for Microbiome Studies.

Recently, researchers have been focusing on characterizing the tongue coating microbiome from patients with digestive tract disease. However, to the best of our knowledge, the tongue coating collection methods have not been standardized until now. This article focuses on bridging this gap by exploring and validating the conditions suitable for the collection of tongue coating samples.

Genome sequence of the Asian Tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, reveals insights into its biology, genetics, and evolution.

The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, is a highly successful invasive species that transmits a number of human viral diseases, including dengue and Chikungunya fevers. This species has a large genome with significant population-based size variation. The complete genome sequence was determined for the Foshan strain, an established laboratory colony derived from wild mosquitoes from southeastern China, a region within the historical range of the origin of the species.

Outbred genome sequencing and CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in butterflies.

Butterflies are exceptionally diverse but their potential as an experimental system has been limited by the difficulty of deciphering heterozygous genomes and a lack of genetic manipulation technology. Here we use a hybrid assembly approach to construct high-quality reference genomes for Papilio xuthus (contig and scaffold N50: 492 kb, 3.4 Mb) and Papilio machaon (contig and scaffold N50: 81 kb, 1.

Genome sequencing of the perciform fish Larimichthys crocea provides insights into molecular and genetic mechanisms of stress adaptation.

The large yellow croaker Larimichthys crocea (L. crocea) is one of the most economically important marine fish in China and East Asian countries. It also exhibits peculiar behavioral and physiological characteristics, especially sensitive to various environmental stresses, such as hypoxia and air exposure.

Mudskipper genomes provide insights into the terrestrial adaptation of amphibious fishes.

Mudskippers are amphibious fishes that have developed morphological and physiological adaptations to match their unique lifestyles. Here we perform whole-genome sequencing of four representative mudskippers to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying these adaptations. We discover an expansion of innate immune system genes in the mudskippers that may provide defence against terrestrial pathogens.

Genome-wide adaptive complexes to underground stresses in blind mole rats Spalax.

The blind mole rat (BMR), Spalax galili, is an excellent model for studying mammalian adaptation to life underground and medical applications. The BMR spends its entire life underground, protecting itself from predators and climatic fluctuations while challenging it with multiple stressors such as darkness, hypoxia, hypercapnia, energetics and high pathonecity. Here we sequence and analyse the BMR genome and transcriptome, highlighting the possible genomic adaptive responses to the underground stressors.

Spider genomes provide insight into composition and evolution of venom and silk.

Spiders are ecologically important predators with complex venom and extraordinarily tough silk that enables capture of large prey. Here we present the assembled genome of the social velvet spider and a draft assembly of the tarantula genome that represent two major taxonomic groups of spiders. The spider genomes are large with short exons and long introns, reminiscent of mammalian genomes.

Genome and transcriptome analysis of the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense causing banana vascular wilt disease.

Background: The asexual fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) causing vascular wilt disease is one of the most devastating pathogens of banana (Musa spp.

The locust genome provides insight into swarm formation and long-distance flight.

Locusts are one of the world's most destructive agricultural pests and represent a useful model system in entomology. Here we present a draft 6.5 Gb genome sequence of Locusta migratoria, which is the largest animal genome sequenced so far.

Genome of Drosophila suzukii, the spotted wing drosophila.

Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (spotted wing drosophila) has recently become a serious pest of a wide variety of fruit crops in the United States as well as in Europe, leading to substantial yearly crop losses. To enable basic and applied research of this important pest, we sequenced the D. suzukii genome to obtain a high-quality reference sequence.

Comparative analysis of bat genomes provides insight into the evolution of flight and immunity.

Bats are the only mammals capable of sustained flight and are notorious reservoir hosts for some of the world's most highly pathogenic viruses, including Nipah, Hendra, Ebola, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). To identify genetic changes associated with the development of bat-specific traits, we performed whole-genome sequencing and comparative analyses of two distantly related species, fruit bat Pteropus alecto and insectivorous bat Myotis davidii. We discovered an unexpected concentration of positively selected genes in the DNA damage checkpoint and nuclear factor κB pathways that may be related to the origin of flight, as well as expansion and contraction of important gene families.

Transcriptomic evidence for the expression of horizontally transferred algal nuclear genes in the photosynthetic sea slug, Elysia chlorotica.

Analysis of the transcriptome of the kleptoplastic sea slug, Elysia chlorotica, has revealed the presence of at least 101 chloroplast-encoded gene sequences and 111 transcripts matching 52 nuclear-encoded genes from the chloroplast donor, Vaucheria litorea. These data clearly show that the symbiotic chloroplasts are translationally active and, of even more interest, that a variety of functional algal genes have been transferred into the slug genome, as has been suggested by earlier indirect experiments. Both the chloroplast- and nuclear-encoded sequences were rare within the E.