Could be better: adolescent access to health information and care.

Unlabelled: Many adolescents must overcome a broad range of barriers to access health information and care and are consequently reluctant to pursue assistance for their health concerns. In this review, we examine from whom and how adolescents seek help (for example, by consulting with friends and family members and by searching for health information using online platforms) and how adolescents treat symptoms without consulting with a clinician by engaging in self-medication. Next, we suggest ways to help adolescents receive accurate health information and access to healthcare through school-based health education programs and health centers.

Dan Tawfik's Lessons for Protein Engineers about Enzymes Adapting to New Substrates.

Natural evolution has been creating new complex systems for billions of years. The process is spontaneous and requires neither intelligence nor moral purpose but is nevertheless difficult to understand. The late Dan Tawfik spent years studying enzymes as they adapted to recognize new substrates.

EXPERIMENTAL INFECTION WITH A NATURALLY OCCURRING PROTOZOAN PARASITE REDUCES MONARCH BUTTERFLY () MATING SUCCESS.

Parasitic infection is known to drive sexual selection in persuasive mating systems, where parasites influence the secondary sexual characteristics that underlie mate choice. However, comparatively little is known about their effects on animals that use coercive mating behavior. We use a tractable system consisting of monarch butterflies and their naturally occurring parasite to test how parasites influence host mating dynamics when males force females to copulate.

Could simplified stimuli change how the brain performs visual search tasks? A deep neural network study.

Visual search is a complex behavior influenced by many factors. To control for these factors, many studies use highly simplified stimuli. However, the statistics of these stimuli are very different from the statistics of the natural images that the human visual system is optimized by evolution and experience to perceive.

The changing epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2.

We have come a long way since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic-from hoarding toilet paper and wiping down groceries to sending our children back to school and vaccinating billions. Over this period, the global community of epidemiologists and evolutionary biologists has also come a long way in understanding the complex and changing dynamics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19. In this Review, we retrace our steps through the questions that this community faced as the pandemic unfolded.

Golden Gate assembly of BioBrick-compliant parts using Type II restriction endonucleases.

New methods of DNA recombination that capture the principal advantages of the BioBrick standard (ease of design) and Golden Gate assembly (decreased labor) are demonstrated here. Both methods employ DNA methyltransferase expression vectors, available from Addgene, that protect selected sites on different plasmids from particular Type II restriction endonucleases. No other reagents are required.

The VIL gene CRAWLING ELEPHANT controls maturation and differentiation in tomato via polycomb silencing.

VERNALIZATION INSENSITIVE 3-LIKE (VIL) proteins are PHD-finger proteins that recruit the repressor complex Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) to the promoters of target genes. Most known VIL targets are flowering repressor genes. Here, we show that the tomato VIL gene CRAWLING ELEPHANT (CREL) promotes differentiation throughout plant development by facilitating the trimethylation of Histone H3 on lysine 27 (H3K27me3).

Fungi inhabiting attine ant colonies: reassessment of the genus Escovopsis and description of Luteomyces and Sympodiorosea gens. nov.

Escovopsis is a diverse group of fungi, which are considered specialized parasites of the fungal cultivars of fungus-growing ants. The lack of a suitable taxonomic framework and phylogenetic inconsistencies have long hampered Escovopsis research. The aim of this study is to reassess the genus Escovopsis using a taxonomic approach and a comprehensive multilocus phylogenetic analysis, in order to set the basis of the genus systematics and the stage for future Escovopsis research.

The assembled and annotated genome of the pigeon louse Columbicola columbae, a model ectoparasite.

The pigeon louse Columbicola columbae is a longstanding and important model for studies of ectoparasitism and host-parasite coevolution. However, a deeper understanding of its evolution and capacity for rapid adaptation is limited by a lack of genomic resources. Here, we present a high-quality draft assembly of the C.

Evolution of animal immunity in the light of beneficial symbioses.

Immune system processes serve as the backbone of animal defences against pathogens and thus have evolved under strong selection and coevolutionary dynamics. Most microorganisms that animals encounter, however, are not harmful, and many are actually beneficial. Selection should act on hosts to maintain these associations while preventing exploitation of within-host resources.

An integrative approach to symbiont-mediated vector control for agricultural pathogens.

Vector-borne pathogens pose significant threats to agricultural productivity. Methods that exploit associations between insects and their symbiotic microbes, dubbed symbiont-mediated vector control, are emerging as viable alternatives to insecticides for the control of vector-borne agricultural plant pathogens. The development of methods for effective microbial manipulation, such as RNA interference and paratransgenesis, may facilitate symbiont-mediated vector control tactics aimed at either suppressing insect populations or at manipulating vector competence, an insect vector's ability to acquire, harbor, and transmit pathogens.

Diet-microbiome-disease: Investigating diet's influence on infectious disease resistance through alteration of the gut microbiome.

Abiotic and biotic factors can affect host resistance to parasites. Host diet and host gut microbiomes are two increasingly recognized factors influencing disease resistance. In particular, recent studies demonstrate that (1) particular diets can reduce parasitism; (2) diets can alter the gut microbiome; and (3) the gut microbiome can decrease parasitism.

The influence of symbiotic bacteria on reproductive strategies and wing polyphenism in pea aphids responding to stress.

Environmental stressors can be key drivers of phenotypes, including reproductive strategies and morphological traits. The response to stress may be altered by the presence of microbial associates. For example, in aphids, facultative (secondary) bacterial symbionts can provide protection against natural enemies and stress induced by elevated temperatures.

Elevated atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide reduce monarch tolerance and increase parasite virulence by altering the medicinal properties of milkweeds.

Hosts combat their parasites using mechanisms of resistance and tolerance, which together determine parasite virulence. Environmental factors, including diet, mediate the impact of parasites on hosts, with diet providing nutritional and medicinal properties. Here, we present the first evidence that ongoing environmental change decreases host tolerance and increases parasite virulence through a loss of dietary medicinal quality.

Reductive chemical release of N-glycans as 1-amino-alditols and subsequent 9-fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl labeling for MS and LC/MS analysis.

Unlabelled: Glycoproteins play pivotal roles in a series of biological processes and their glycosylation patterns need to be structurally and functionally characterized. However, the lack of versatile methods to release N-glycans as functionalized forms has been undermining glycomics studies. Here a novel method is developed for dissociation of N-linked glycans from glycoproteins for analysis by MS and online LC/MS.

Simultaneous Release and Labeling of O- and N-Glycans Allowing for Rapid Glycomic Analysis by Online LC-UV-ESI-MS/MS.

Most glycoproteins and biological protein samples undergo both O- and N-glycosylation, making characterization of their structures very complicated and time-consuming. Nevertheless, to fully understand the biological functions of glycosylation, both the glycosylation forms need to be analyzed. Herein we report a versatile, convenient one-pot method in which O- and N-glycans are simultaneously released from glycoproteins and chromogenically labeled in situ and thus available for further characterization.

Comparing Behavior and Clock Gene Expression between Caterpillars, Butterflies, and Moths.

Circadian behavior is widely observed in insects; however, the mechanisms that drive its evolution remain a black box. While circadian activity rhythms are well characterized in adults within the order Lepidoptera (i.e.

Correction to: Clinical and immunologic evaluation of three metastatic melanoma patients treated with autologous melanoma-reactive TCR-transduced T cells.

The authors would like to make the following corrections to the published article.

Transcriptional profile and differential fitness in a specialist milkweed insect across host plants varying in toxicity.

Interactions between plants and herbivorous insects have been models for theories of specialization and co-evolution for over a century. Phytochemicals govern many aspects of these interactions and have fostered the evolution of adaptations by insects to tolerate or even specialize on plant defensive chemistry. While genomic approaches are providing new insights into the genes and mechanisms insect specialists employ to tolerate plant secondary metabolites, open questions remain about the evolution and conservation of insect counterdefences, how insects respond to the diversity defences mounted by their host plants, and the costs and benefits of resistance and tolerance to plant defences in natural ecological communities.

Clinical and immunologic evaluation of three metastatic melanoma patients treated with autologous melanoma-reactive TCR-transduced T cells.

Malignant melanoma incidence has been increasing for over 30 years, and despite promising new therapies, metastatic disease remains difficult to treat. We describe preliminary results from a Phase I clinical trial (NCT01586403) of adoptive cell therapy in which three patients received autologous CD4 and CD8 T cells transduced with a lentivirus carrying a tyrosinase-specific TCR and a marker protein, truncated CD34 (CD34t). This unusual MHC Class I-restricted TCR produces functional responses in both CD4 and CD8 T cells.

Phoresy.

White et al. introduce the phenomenon of phoresy - animals hitching a ride on other animals.

Oral microbiome in HIV-associated periodontitis.

HIV-associated periodontal diseases (PD) could serve as a source of chronic inflammation. Here, we sought to characterize the oral microbial signatures of HIV+ and HIV- individuals at different levels of PD severity.This cross-sectional study included both HIV+ and HIV- patients with varying degrees of PD.

Semi-automated Tip Snip cloning of restriction fragments into and out of plasmid polylinkers.

Synthetic biologists rely on semi-synthetic recombinant plasmids, but DNA synthesis is constrained by practical limits on length, accuracy, and sequence composition. Cloned DNA parts can be assembled into longer constructs via subcloning, but conventional methods are labor-intensive. One-pot recombination reactions are more convenient but harder to troubleshoot, and those that depend on PCR to create fragments with compatible ends necessitate re-sequencing.

Life-history strategy determines constraints on immune function.

Determining the factors governing investment in immunity is critical to understanding host-pathogen ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Studies often consider disease resistance in the context of life-history theory, with the expectation that investment in immunity will be optimized in anticipation of disease risk. Immunity, however, is constrained by context-dependent fitness costs.