Strain diversity and host specificity of the gut symbiont Gilliamella in Apis mellifera, Apis cerana and Bombus terrestris.

Social bees, with their specialized gut microbiota and societal transmission between individuals, provide an ideal model for studying host-gut microbiota interactions. While the functional disparities arising from strain-level diversity of gut symbionts and their effects on host health have been studied in Apis mellifera and bumblebees, studies focusing on host-specific investigations of individual strains across different honeybee hosts remain relatively unexplored. In this study, the complete genomic sequences of 17 strains of Gilliamella from A.

Engineered extracellular vesicles with DR5 agonistic scFvs simultaneously target tumor and immunosuppressive stromal cells.

Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) are nanosized vesicles. Death receptor 5 (DR5) mediates extrinsic apoptosis. We engineer DR5 agonistic single-chain variable fragment (scFv) expression on the surface of sEVs derived from natural killer cells.

Macrophage-specific in vivo RNA editing promotes phagocytosis and antitumor immunity in mice.

Macrophages play a central role in antitumor immunity, making them an attractive target for gene therapy strategies. However, macrophages are difficult to transfect because of nucleic acid sensors that can trigger the degradation of foreign plasmid DNA. Here, we developed a macrophage-specific editing (MAGE) system by which compact plasmid DNA encoding a CasRx editor can be delivered to macrophages by a poly(β-amino ester) (PBAE) carrier to bypass the DNA sensor and enable RNA editing in vitro and in vivo.

Acrobatics at the insect scale: A durable, precise, and agile micro-aerial robot.

Aerial insects are exceptionally agile and precise owing to their small size and fast neuromotor control. They perform impressive acrobatic maneuvers when evading predators, recovering from wind gust, or landing on moving objects. Flapping-wing propulsion is advantageous for flight agility because it can generate large changes in instantaneous forces and torques.

CFTR dictates monocyte adhesion by facilitating integrin clustering but not activation.

Monocytes are critical in controlling tissue infections and inflammation. Monocyte dysfunction contributes to the inflammatory pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis (CF) caused by CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) mutations, making CF a clinically relevant disease model for studying the contribution of monocytes to inflammation. Although CF monocytes exhibited adhesion defects, the precise mechanism is unclear.